Latin Pronunciation: A Short Exposition of the Roman Method

by Harry Thurston Peck

(3) Because it is simpler than the English system, giving as it does but one sound to each alphabetical character, and thus always distinguishing words of different orthography and meaning by their sounds, while the English system often confuses them; e.g. census and sensus; caedo, cedo, and sedo; circulus and surculus; cervus and servus; amici and amisi.

(4) Because it makes the connection of Latin words with their Greek cognates plain at once, and renders easier the study of Greek, of the modern Romance language, and of the science of Comparative Philology.^[2]

[1] In the Carmen Saliare we find Leucesie, a vocative of the later Lucelius from the root of lux. Cf. Paull. ex Fest. p. 114 (Müller).

[2] See Richardson's Roman Orthoëpy, pp. 83-106. This little book, which is unfortunately out of print, contains some exceedingly good points very cleverly put, though the view that it takes of certain phonetic questions is one that more recent scholarship does not accept.

[VI].

A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE SUBJECT.

ALLEN, F. Remnants of Early Latin. Boston, 1884.
BLAIR, W. Latin Pronunciation. New York and Chicago, 1874.
BLASS, F. Ueber die Aussprache des Griechischen. Berlin, 1882. Eng. trans, by Purton, Cambridge, 1890.
BRAMBACH, W. Die Neugestaltung der Lateinischen Orthographie, etc. Leipzig, 1868.
CORSSEN, W. Ueber Aussprache, Vokalismus, und Betonung der Lateinischen Sprache. Leipzig, 1868-70.
EDON, G. Écriture et Prononciation du Latin. Paris, 1882.
ELLIS, A. J. Practical Hints on the Quantitative Pronunciation of Latin. London, 1874.
HALDEMAN, S. S. Elements of Latin Pronunciation for the Use of Students in Language, etc. Philadelphia, 1851.
KEIL, H. Grammatici Latini. 7 vols. Leipzig, 1856-80.
KENNEDY, B. H. The Public School Latin Grammar. London, 1874.
KING, D. B. Latin Pronunciation. New York and Boston, 1880.
KING, J., and COOKSON, C. Principles of Sound and Inflexion in Greek and Latin. London, 1888.
MUNRO, H. A. J. Remarks on the Pronunciation of Latin. Cambridge, 1871.
MUNRO, H. A. J., and PALMER, E. A Syllabus of Latin Pronunciation. Oxford and Cambridge, 1872.
RICHARDSON, J. F. Roman Orthoëpy: a Plea for the Restoration of the True System of Latin Pronunciation. New York, 1859.
RITSCHL, F. Zur Geschichte des Lateinischen Alphabets in the Rheinisches Museum, 1869.
ROBY, H, J. A Grammar of the Latin Language from Plautus to Suetonius. London, 1881.
SCHUCHARDT, H. Der Vokalismus des Vulgärlateins. Leipzig, 1866-68.
SEELMANN, E. Die Aussprache des Latein nach physiologisch-historischen Grundsätzen. Heilbronn, 1885.
SIEVERS, E. Grundzüge der Phonetik. Leipzig, 1885.
SWEET, H. A Handbook of Phonetics. Oxford, 1877.
TAFEL, L., and TAFEL, R. Latin Pronunciation and the Latin Alphabet. New York and Philadelphia, 1860.
TAYLOR, ISAAC. The Alphabet. London, 1883.
WEIL, H., and BENLOEW, L. Théoric Gënérale de l'Accentuation Latine. Paris, 1855.
WORDSWORTH, J. Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin. Oxford, 1874.

[See also articles by Prof. Max Müller and Mr. Munro in the Academy, Feb. 15, 1871; Dec. 15, 1871; and Jan. 11, 1872; and by Prof. J. C. Jones in the Classical Review, Feb. 1893.]