Chap. F pronunci sometime

2. ss (or s) for ts or ds; e. g. clau-si for claud-si; mi-si for mit-si; eques for equět-s; es-se for ed-se (i.e. ĕdere to eat); frons for front-s and for frond-s; &c.

So also n (sometimes) and r (rarely) are assimilated to a following s, and, it may be, subsequently omitted; e. g. formōsus for formon-sus; imperiōsus or imperiossus for imperion-sus; viciēs for viciens; vicēsumus for vicensumus; trigesumus for trigensumus (see below 4); mensas (and other acc. plurals) for mensams (mensans); dispessus for dispan-sus; mostrum from monstrum (see next §).

Prōsa for proversa (prorsa); prōsus for prorsus; rūsus (or russus) for rursus. But mer-sus, ver-sus, &c. (see next §) remain (§ 42).

3. s for t after lg, rg, 11, rr; e. g. mul-sum for mulg-tum; mersum for merg-tum; cur-sum for curr-tum; pul-sum for pell-tum, &c. (Quintilian, 1. 4. 14, speaks of mertare, pultare, as being the old forms for mersare, pulsare.) Rarely after single mutes; e. g. lap-sum for lab-tum; &c. (see Book II).

4. ss (or s) for dt or tt; (i. e. dt, tt, become ds, ts as in preceding paragraph, and then by assimilation ds, ts became ss, of which one s was after Cicero's time omitted1; e. g. cessum for ced-tum ; casum (cassum Cic.) for cad-tum; mis-sum for mitt-tum; sen-sum for sent-tum; divīsum (divissum Cic.) for divid-tum; &c. vicensumus for vicent-tumus; trigensumus for trigent-tumus (see above 2); &c.

5. -iss for iōs (cf. § 242) in adjectives of the superlative degree; e. g. durissimus for duriōsimus; doctis-simus for doctiōs-imus, &c. See also the next paragraph and the Preface.

6. ss in prohibessit, levassit, &c. appears to be only indicative of the length of the preceding vowel. Possibly there may have been some confusion with such forms as complessent, recesset, levasse, &c. which contain the perfect suffix -is. Moreover an s left single would have formed an exception to the general law of Roman pronunciation which changed such an s to r (§ 183).

For the etymology of arcesso, capesso, &c. see § 625.

INFLUENCE: 1. Changed a preceding flat consonant to sharp; 192 e. g. scrip-si from scrib-o; rexi (i. e. rec-si) from reg-o. So (in

96

1 Quintilian's words (1. 7. 20) deserve quoting; "Quid quod Ciceronis temporibus paulumque infra, fere quoties s littera media uocalium longarum uel subjecta longis esset, geminabatur? ut 'caussas,' 'cassus,' 'diuissiones:' quomodo et ipsum et Vergilium quoque scripsisse manus eorum docent. atqui paulum superiores etiam illud, quod nos gemina dicimus jussi,' una dixerunt."

pronunciation at least) op-sequor, sup-signo, though b in sub (subs) sometimes fell away; e. g. suspicio (§ 78).

2. changed a preceding m to n; e.g. con-scribo, consul, &c.; or required insertion of p; e. g. hiemps for hiems; sump-si for sum-si; &c. (but pres-si (for pren-si) from prēm-o).

3.

Completely assimilated, or threw out, a preceding d or t (always), n or r (sometimes); e.g. ces-sum for ced-sum, for ced-tum; &c. See § 191, 2. But mons for monts; ars for arts. See § 42. 4. ns lengthens a preceding vowel: see § 167. 2.

WEAKNESS: 1. Initial s has fallen off before a consonant in 193 some words; e.g. fallo compared with opáλλw; fungus with σφόγγος; tigo with στέγω; törus with sterno, στόρνυμι, στρώννυμι; tono with σrévo; &c., but in most stems the Greek and Latin agree in this matter, and the omission is discernible only by comparison with other languages; e. g. nix, vipeɩ compared with snow; taurus, Taupos with steer; limus with slime; &c.

2. Medial s falls away before nasals, liquids, and other flat

consonants.

(a) before m; e.g. dūmus for dus-mus (comp. daσús); Camēna for Casmēna; pōmorium for posmœrium; trirēmis compared with triresmos (Duillian inscript.); dīmota for dismota; trāmitto for transmitto; &c.

(b) before n; e.g. pōno for posno (comp. pos-ui); viděn for vides-ne; satin for satis-ne; ae-num for aes-num (æs-).

(c) before d; e.g. jū-dex for jus-dex; idem for is-dem; tre-decim for tres-decim; dīduco for dis-duco.

(d) before 1, r; e. g. dilabor, diripio for dis-labor, &c.

3. $ between two vowels almost always changed to r in early times, see § 183. Consequently no Latin words exhibit s between two vowels,

Except (a) where s is not original, but due to a substitution (often indeed standing for ss); e.g. prōsa, hæ-sum, esŭries, ausim, causa (caussa, Cic.), formōsus, &c. where it stands for

d or t.

(b) compounds of words where s was initial; e.g. de-silio, positura, præ-sentia, bi-sextus, &c.

(c) the following words (some of which may perhaps fall under the foregoing classes), viz. ăsînus, bāsium, cæsăries, cæsius, căsa, câseus, cisium, füsus, låser, miser, näsus, pūsillus, quă

sillum, quæso (also quæro), rosa (comp. pódov), vāsa; and some proper names; e.g. Cæsar, Kæso, Lausus, Pisa, Pisaurum, Sisenna, Sosia (gæsum is a Keltic word).

4. Final s became r; (a) in the nom. sing. of stems in s (in compliance with the change in the other cases?); e.g. arbor from arbos-; honor from honōs-; robur from robòs-; melior from meliōs-; &c.

(b) where a vowel originally followed; e.g. puer for puerus, originally puesus. The characteristic r of the passive voice is generally held to be for se.

5.

Finals after a vowel at an early period of the language was frequently not pronounced, and thus frequently omitted in writing also. (In the 4th century after Christ the same tendency recurred and remains in Italian, &c.) Instances are

(a) nom. sing. of -a stems; e.g. nauta, scriba, &c. compared with vaúrns, &c.; luxuria, spurcitia, &c. with luxuries, spurcities, &c. See Book II.

(b) nom. sing. of -o stems; e.g. ille, ipse for illus, ipsus. So perhaps the vocatives domine, fili (= filie), &c. which however most philologers take for the stem itself weakened.

So, frequently in early inscriptions, Cornelio, Fourio, Herenio, &c. for Cornelios, Fourios, Herenios (nom. sing.), the forms with s (both -os and -us) occurring likewise at the same time. In later, chiefly imperial, inscriptions occur, e.g. Philarguru, Secundu, &c.

s with the preceding vowel (ŏ at that time) fell off in puer for puerus, tibicen for tibicenus, &c. Inscriptions (e.g. S. C. Bacc.) give Claudi, Valeri, &c. for Claudios, Valerios (nom. sing.), which some refer to a shortened form Claudis, Valeris, as alis for alius; some take to be a mere abbreviation.

(c) pote (all genders) for potis; mage for magis (adv.). After 1 and r we have vigil, pugil for vigilis, pugilis (nom. s. masc. fem.); acer, equester, saluber (m. nom.), &c. for equesteris, saluberis; &c.

(d) The nom. pl. of -o stems of all kinds in early inscriptions had frequently s final, which the ordinary language dropped; e.g. Minacieis, Vituries, Italiceis, vireis, publiceis, conscriptes, heisce, hisce, &c. See Book II.

(e) The ordinary genitive sing. of -a, -e, and -o stems, e. g. familiæ or familiai, diei or die, domini, is either formed by omission of a final s as in old genitives, familias (for familiaes); dies, rabies, illius (for illo-ius); or is a locative form in -i (so Bopp, Madvig, and others). Only in late inscriptions occur integritati, Isidi, &c. for integritatis, Isidis, &c.

(f) In verbs (2nd pers. sing. of passive voice) amabare, loquerere, conabere, &c. for amabaris (old amabares), &c. So the imperative present (unless taken as the bare stem, cf. 5. b) is formed from the indicative present; e.g. ama, amate for amas, amatis, &c.

The old imperative forms præfamino, progredimino, &c. are for præfaminos, progrediminos, having same suffix as тUπт-óμevos, and therefore belong to (b).

(g) In the early poets, so also frequently in Lucretius and once in Catullus, the final s before an initial consonant was treated as omitted; e.g. at end of some hexameters, quoted for this purpose by Cicero (Or. 48, § 161), Qui est omnibu' princeps; Vita illa dignu' locoque. Compare Vergil, Æn. XII. 115, Solis equi lucemque elatis naribus efflant, copied, with a transposition on this ground, from Ennius (p. 85, Vahlen), funduntque

elatis naribus lucem.

Z.

This letter was common in Umbrian and Oscan. It is found 194 for instance in the Latin transcription of an Oscan law of the time of the Gracchi (Corp. Inscr. Lat. No. 197). It is also found in an extract from the song of the Salii given by Varro (L.L. VII. 26). In Latin it appears first (unless the above be an exception) in Cicero's time, merely to write Greek words, which were before written with s or ss.

The introduction of z into Plautus must therefore probably be due to a later recension.

In the writers of the 3rd and 4th centuries after Christ z is 195 used for di in the words zaconus, zabulus, zeta, &c. for diákovos, diáßoλos, díaira, &c. So in an Algerian inscription (198 A.D.) Azabenico for Adiabenico.

The converse is seen in manuscripts giving glycyrridia, gargaridiare, Medientius for γλυκύρριζα, γαργαρίζειν and (Etruscan) Me

zentius.

(In Æolic dialect of Lesbos (á is found for diá; e.g. (à VUKTós; and so in tragedy, ζάπυρος, ζάχρυσος, &c. So πεζός for πέδιος, &c.). It seems probable that (, and, if so, then Latin z, was (at least sometimes) sounded like English j (which sound soon rises out of dy) or French j; but Curtius, Corssen, and others (not Key or Donaldson) assign it the sound of English z, as in modern Greek.

CHAPTER IX.

VOWELS.

Thus a

THE Latin vowels will here be treated in the order which ap- 196 pears to have been followed in the development of the language; viz. a, o, u, e, i. That is to say, where one vowel has given place to another, it has been in the direction of a to i, not i to a. was capable of changing to o, or u, or e, or i; o to u, or e, or i; u to e or i; e to i. Changes which prima facie seem to be made in the reverse direction are the result of our regarding, as the standard form, what is really a later development1: e.g. mare, from the stem (as we now call it) mari-; effectus from efficio, &c. (See Ritschl, Rhein. Mus. (1859) XIV. p. 406. Opusc. II. 622, n.) But see § 234. 5. and 244. And the priority of e to i in the -1 stems rests on but little positive evidence.

A.

CHARACTER: usually as above, but all positions of the middle 197 stroke are found; e.g. bisecting the angle, or bisecting either side and parallel to, or touching the bottom of, the other.

SOUND: as Continental a; viz. long ā as in psalm; short as the 198 broader pronunciation of pastime.

POSITION: frequently final

1. in nouns; as nom. (ă) and abl. (ā) singular, of a- stems, and nom. acc. neuter plural (ă) of all stems;

2. in verbs; only 2nd pers. sing. pres. imperative (ā) of a- verbs. REPRESENTATION: (i) in Greek by a; e.g. Marcus, Mápkos; Fabius, Φάβιος; Publicola, Ποπλικόλας; Alba longa, Αλβα λόγγα (Dionys. H.); &c.

(ii) of Greek a; e.g. 'Aλkμývŋ, Alcumena (Plaut.); 'Ayaμéμvov, Agamemno; páλayέ, phalanx; πараπnуμа, parаpegma; &c.

1 Corssen contests this, arguing for the priority in some cases of e to u, and of i to e. Krit. Beitr. p. 546 foll. So also Schleicher, Vergl. Gram. § 49, ed. 2. See also Corssen, Aussprache, 11. 226, ed. 2.

199

200