(a) Martianus Capella says: "I is a breathing with the teeth nearly closed."
(b) It is represented in Greek by ι.
(c) All the derived modern languages give i this sound.
[In the vulgar language and the sermo rusticus, ī seems to have varied with ĕ and to have been confused with it. So Augustus Caesar said heri for here; and we find sibe for sibi. Cf. Cic. de Orat. III. 12. 46.; Quint, I. 7.; Aulus Gellius, X. 24. Also a confusion appears between ĭ and ŭ, as in the forms optumus and optimus; lubet and libet. But we are only concerned with the normal sound of the letter, which is that given above.]
11. L: had the sound of English l.
It is always represented in Greek by λ. The position of the vocal organs in uttering it is described by Marius Victorinus, p. 34. Martianus Capella (III. 261) says: "L grows soft upon the tongue and palate."
[For l as a corruption of r, see 17. b.]
12. M: had the sound of English m, but was much weakened at the end of words.
The fact that m was weakly sounded at the end of words is shown by the elision of a final m before an initial vowel in poetry (synaloepha); by the fact that in the early inscriptions it is often omitted in writing; and by the positive statements of the Roman writers themselves.[5] Because at the end of a word before a following vowel it was practically a silent letter, Verrius Flaccus wished to represent it in that position by a different character,
