to mark the consonantal sound of V; (2) the character known as "anti-sigma"
to express the sound denoted by the Greek ψ (ps or bs); and (3) the sign
, which was to have the sound of the Greek υ, i.e. of modern French u or German ü. It may be mentioned also, that consonants were not doubled in writing Latin until the practice was adopted from the Greek by Ennius (B.C. 239-169), who in various ways conformed Roman usages to those of the Greeks.
The Roman alphabet, like the early alphabet of the Greeks, lacked distinctive characters for the long and short vowels. This defect, which was partly corrected in Greek by the adoption of the letters η and ω (traditionally ascribed to Epicharmus of Syracuse, B.C. 500), was never fully remedied in Latin, though at different times various devices were employed to distinguish between ā and ă, ē and ĕ, ū and ŭ, ō and ŏ. These were:
(1) The doubling of the vowel when long, as in modern Dutch; thus, vootum = votum; aara = āra. This method was persistently used by the poet Attius[1].
(2) By the use of a species of accent (apex) over the long vowel. This became quite general in the Augustan Age.
(3) The length of the vowel ī was denoted sometimes by making it longer than the other letters and sometimes by writing it ei; thus, DICO, PVEREI.