REPRESENTATION: (i) 1. in Greek by a; e.g. Æmilius (see 259 however § 256), Αἰμίλιος; #butius, Αἰβούτιος; Κæs0, Καίσων; Cæsar, Kaîoap; Æqui, Aiko (Strabo); &c.

2. Rarely by e; e.g. Cæcilius, Kekiλios (cf. § 262); Cæcina, Kekivas (Plut. but Kaukivas, D. Cass.).

(ii) 1. of Greek aɩ; e.g. Aiveías, Æneas; Havaítios, Panætius; Λακεδαίμων, Lacedæmon; αἰγίς, πgis; Παιάν, Pæan; αἰθήρ, æther;

&c.

2. of Greek a; e. g. 'Aσkλáñios (Dor.), Esculapius (an old genitive Aisclapi is found); máλλaέ, pælex, (also pelex).

3. of Greek n; e.g. σêŋvý, scæna.

CORRESPONDENCE: to Greek au; e.g. æstas, æstus, aïow, 260 αἰθήρ; lævus, λαιός; scavus, σκαιός; ævum, αἰων, αἰές (Att. ἀεί).

SUBSTITUTION: for ai, which however lingered beside æ. E is 261 found first in the S. C. de Bacc. in adem, where in all other words (aiquom, Duelonai, haice, tabelai, datai) al is retained. E is very rare in inscriptions before the time of the Gracchi, but after that time is almost exclusively used in all the longer and more important inscriptions; e.g. the laws, the Mon. Ancyr. &c.

æ, for ē and ĕ, is rare in inscriptions before (at least) the 2nd cent. after Christ. It is frequent in MSS.

CHANGE OF QUALITY: 1. toe both in root and final syllable. 262 A few instances occur in very old inscriptions; e.g. Victorie, Fortune, Diane: so also occasionally in rustic language noted by Varro, edus for hædus, Mesius for Mæsius; Cecilius pretor, ridiculed by Lucilius. But instances in inscriptions (except the Pompeian wall inscriptions) are not numerous till in and after third century after Christ; e.g. prefectus, presenti, aque, patrie, &c.

2. to I in root syllables after a prefix, e.g. cædo, concido; lado, illido; quæro, requiro; æstumo, existumo; æquus, iniquus; &c.

OI, OE.

SOUND: of nearly as in English; e.g. voice, &c.: oe was also 263 probably sounded as a diphthong.

CHANGE OF QUALITY: Words with in the root syllable 264 were in the older language written with oi or œ; and words with ∞ in the root syllable were also earlier written with oi.

In inscriptions of is rarely found so late as the first century before Christ: (though probably as old as Plautus) is little found in

inscriptions before the first century B.C.: u is found in their place in and after the time of the Gracchi.

I. oi, œ to u; e.g. oino, cenus, unus; oinvorsei, universi; ploirume, plora, plurimi, plura; comoinem, moinicipieis, mœnia, moniundæ, inmænes for communem, municipiis, munia, muniundæ, immunes; moiro, morum, murum; oitile, œtantur, œtier for utile, utantur, uti; coira, coiravit, cœra, cœravit, cura, curavit; loidos, lædos, ludos; &c.

2. oi to œ; e.g. foldere, foideratei, fœdere, fœderati; coipint, cœpint, Coilius, Cœlius,

3. some other changes are, nonum afterwards non; læbertas, libertas; obodio from audio.

4. In final syllables, hoice, hoic, quoi (also quoiei), quoique are early forms of huic, cui, cuique: pilumne poplo, for pilumni populi (gen. sing.?), pike-armed tribe; Fescennince for fescennini (nom. pl.); ab oloes for ab illis.

EI,

I. This diphthong is found in inscriptions older than the 265 Gracchi in the following forms, in which I occurs later. (The S. C. de Bacc. has rarely i, frequently ei.)

(a) a few root syllables; e.g. leiber, deivus, deicere, ceivis.

(b) dative singular of consonant nouns; e.g. Apolenei, Junonei, virtutei, Jovei. Frequently also in inscriptions later than the Gracchi, in which I also is found. The dative in e is also found, and more frequently in the earlier than in the later inscriptions.

(c) nominative plural of o stems; e.g. foideratei, iei. After the time of the Gracchi both i and ei are frequent. Earlier forms were ēs, ē, and œ (see Book ii).

(d) dative and ablative plural of o stems; e.g. eels (S. C. de Bacc.), also vobeis. -eis is frequently found in this case after the time of the Gracchi. Both -is and -eis occur also from -a stems since that period, but apparently before that period no instance of those cases occurs.

(e) also in the datives and adverbs sibel, tibei, ubei, ibei, sei, nei, utel; in which e was probably a still older form.

2. In præ-Augustan inscriptions later than the Gracchi it is 266 found instead of and beside an earlier I, or e in the classes numbered below (g), (b).

(a) in some root syllables; e.g. deicere, deixerit also (dicere, &c.); promeiserit, eire, adeitur, conscreiptum, veita, leitis, leiteras, meilites, feilia, Teiburtis, eis, eisdem (nom. plur.).

(b) in suffixes; e.g. Serveilius, genteiles, ameicorum, discipleina, peregreinus, fugiteivus, peteita (for petita), mareitus, &c.

(c) occasionally, but not frequently, as the characteristic vowel of the fourth conjugation; e.g. audeire, veneire, &c.

(d) in infin. pass. not commonly till Cicero's time; e.g. darei, solvei, possiderei, agei, &c.

(e) in perfect (for an older i or sometimes e); e.g. obeit, fecel, poseivel, dedeit, &c.

(f) other verbal forms; e.g. nolei, faxseis, seit, &c.

(g) also rarely in the ablative from consonant and 1 nouns; e.g. virtutei, fontei, &c.

(b) nom. and acc. plur. of 1 stems; e.g. omneis, turreis, &c. (i) genitive singular of o stems; e.g. colonel, damnatei (one or two instances occur a little before the Gracchi).

El is but occasionally found in post-Augustan inscriptions.

Corssen's conclusion is, that in the root syllable of the words 267 deiva, leiber, deicere, ceivis, in the dat. abl. plur. of -o stems and probably of -a stems, and in the locative forms, as sei, utei, &c., ei was a real diphthong; in all other cases it expressed the transition vowel between 1 and (Ausspr. i. 719. 788. ed. 2). As a diphthong its sound would be nearly that of the English a; e.g. fate.

Ritschl's view of the relations of ē, ei and I is as follows (Opusc. 11. 626): "First period (5th century U.c. to and into the 6th). Predominance of e in place of the later 1, and, in fact, both of ĕ for I and of for I. Second period (6th century). Transition of e to i (so far as e was changed at all), ĕ changing to I absolutely, but to I with this modification, that where in the case of ẽ the pronunciation noticeably inclined to 1, the habit was gradually adopted of writing ei. Third period (1st decad of the 7th century). Accius extends this mode of writing to every I without exception, in order to obtain a thorough distinction of i from 1, in connexion with his theory of doubling a, e, u to denote the long vowel. Short I remains unaltered. Fourth period. Lucilius, recognising the arbitrary and irrational character of this generalisation, confines the writing el to the cases where I inclines to ē. Short i remains unaffected by this also."

268

CHAPTER XI.

OF LATIN WORDS and SYLLABLES.

A Latin word may commence with any vowel or diphthong, 269 semivowel, or single consonant.

But of combinations of consonants the following only are in Latin found as initial; viz.

1. an explosive or f followed by a liquid; i.e. pl, pr; bl, br; cl, cr; gl, gr; tr; fl, fr: but not tl, dl, dr;

e.g. plaudo, precor; blandus, brevis; clamo, crudus; globus, gravis; traho; fluo, frendo. (Drusus is possibly an exception (cf. $155); other words in dr are Greek or foreign; e. g. drachma, draco, Druidæ.)

2. 8 before a sharp explosive, with or without a following liquid; viz. sp, spl, spr; sc, scr; st, str;

e.g. sperno, splendeo, sprevi; scio, scribo; sto, struo. Also stlis, afterwards lis. No instance of scl is found.

3. gn was found in Gnæus and in some other words; e.g. gnarus, gnavus, gnosco, gnascor, but the forms with g are almost confined to the early language (§ 129. 3).

4.

The semi-consonant v is also found after an initial q or s; e.g. qvos, svavis (§ 89): and in Plautus scio, dies are pronounced scjo, djes (§ 142).

A Latin word may end with any vowel or diphthong, but with 270 only a few single consonants; viz. the liquids 1, r, the nasals m, n, the sibilant s, one explosive, t. A few words end with b, c, d.

Of these, b occurs only in three prepositions, ab, ob, sub.

c only where a subsequent letter has fallen away; e. g. dic, duc, fac, lac, ac, nec, nunc, tunc, and the pronouns hic, illic, istic (for dice, duce, face, lacte, atque, neque, nunce, tunce, hice, illice, istice).

d only in haud, ad, apud, sed; and the neuters of certain pronouns; e. g. illud, istud, quod, quid. In the earliest language it appears to have been the characteristic of the ablative singular; e.g. bonod patred, &c. (§ 160. 6).

The following combinations of consonants are found to end 271 Latin words. With few exceptions they are either in nominatives singular of nouns, or the third person of verbs.

1. 8 preceded

(a) by certain explosives; i. e. ps, mps, rps; bs, rbs; cs(=x), nx, lx, rx;

e.g. adeps, hiemps, stirps; cœlebs, urbs; edax, lanx, calx, arx; &c. Also the words siremps, abs, ex, sex,

(b) by a nasal or liquid; i.e. ns, 1s, rs;

e.g. amans, frons, puls, ars. Each of these combinations is unstable (e.g. homo for homons, consul for consuls, arbor for arbors); but is here preserved owing to one consonant having been already sacrificed; viz. amans for amants; frons for fronts or fronds; puls for pults; ars for arts. In trans, quotiens, the combination is not more stable: comp. tramitto, quoties.

2. t preceded by n, or rarely by 1, r, s; i.e. nt, lt, rt, st;

e.g. amant, erint, &c. The only instances of the other combinations are vult, fert, est, ast, post.

3. c preceded by n, i.e. nc. Only in the following, nunc, tunc, hinc, illinc, istinc.

The division of a word into syllables appears to have been in 272 accordance with the general principles (see § 15)1; that is to say,

1. the division was made in the middle of a consonant.

2. the tendency was to pronounce with a vowel as many of the following consonants as were so pronounceable.

3. the admissibility of a particular combination of consonants in the middle of a word depends on the laws of phonetics, not on the particular causes, partly etymological, partly accentual (the last syllable, where there is more than one, being in Latin always unaccented, § 296), which controlled the occurrence of consonants at the end of a word. But the laws of phonetics in this matter depend on the Roman mode of pronunciation, not on our mode; e.g. ts, ds were not stable; &c.

That such was the mode in which the Romans actually pro- 273 nounced is shewn by the following facts:

I. Vowels are affected by the consonants following them; viz. ĕ before r is retained instead of being changed to I (§ 234, 204. 184); Ŏ or before 11 is changed to e (§ 213. 4, also § 204); the short

1 See some discussion of this matter in the Preface.