# The Making of Latin/Chapter 4

London: J. Murray, pages 39–43
IV. THE SOUNDS AND ACCENT OF CICERO’S LATIN
§ 80. We are now prepared to study the chief changes of sound that happened in Latin after it had become a separate language. But for clearness’ sake it is well to begin by observing what the sounds of the language actually were, and how the language was accented, in the time of Cicero, that is, after most of the changes which we shall have to study in what follows had been completed.
Scheme of Latin Pronunciation
§ 81. The following list of Latin sounds is taken from the table issued by the authority of the Classical Association.
Vowels.
    ā (prātum), as a in father.
    ă (răpit), the same sound shortened as a in aha.
    ē (mēta), as e in prey, Fr. é as in blé.
    ĕ (frĕta), as e in fret.
    i (fido), as ee in feed, or Fr. ie in amie.
    ĭ (plĭco), as i in fit.
    ō (nōtus), as o in note, or nearer Italian o in Roma.
    ŏ (nota), as o in not, Fr. o in botte. ​
    ū (tūto), as oo in shoot, Ital. u in luna (not as u (yew) in acute).
    ŭ (cŭtis), as u in full (not as u in accurate, nor as u in shun).
§ 82. Diphthongs.
The sounds of the diphthongs may be arrived at by running the two component vowel-sounds rapidly together, the second being pronounced lightly. The most important are:
    ae (portae) = a⁔ +e, nearly as ai in Isaiah (broadly pronounced), Fr. émail (not as a in late).
    au (aurum) = a⁔ +u, as ou in hour, as Ital. au in flauto.
    oe (poena) = o⁔ +e, nearly as oi in boil (not as ee in feet, nor as a in late).
The following diphthongs occur more rarely:
    ui (huic, cui) = u⁔ +i, as Fr. oui.
    eu (heu) = e⁔ +u, nearly as English ew in new.
    ei (ei interjection, or Pompēī, voc. of Pompeius) = e⁔ +i, as ey in grey (not as i in dine).
The recommendations for ae and oe were based mainly on practical considerations, since it has been found by experience that this pronunciation is of great convenience. It is certain that this was the pronunciation given them in early Latin, and that they were still clearly distinct from the long ē in the time of Cicero, though their precise sound then is difficult to determine. ​§ 83. Consonants.
c, g are always hard. c (cepi, accepi), as c in cat. g (gero, agger), as g in get.
So even before i. c (facio), as c in cat (not as s, nor as sh). g (tegit), as g in get. ng (tangit), as ng in finger (not as in hanging).
t is always hard, even before i. t (fortia, ratio), as t in native.
s is always a breathed, dental sound. s (sub, rosa, res, sponsio), as s in sit, sponsor, ce in race (not as in rose or raise, nor as in conclusions). Similarly when compounded; x (exul) = ks, as in extract, bs (urbs) = ps (not bz).
i and u consonantal. i̯ (j), e.g. jacio, as y in you (not as j in Jack). u (v), e.g. volo, practically as w in we, Fr. ou in oui (not as v in very, see § 158). qu (qui, quod), as qu in queen. gu (unguere), as gu in anguish, gw in Gwendolen.
r was always trilled, even in the middle and at the end of words, e.g. in rarus; parma, datur (not as in English palmer, hatter).
Double consonants, e.g. vac-ca, pul-lus, were pronounced separately, as they regularly are in Italian, or as in English book-keeper, well let.
§ 84. For a fuller explanation of this statement and comments on one or two special points (such as the sound of the diphthongs ae, oe, of final -m, and of ​ph, th, ch in words borrowed from Greek) the student is referred to Messrs. Arnold and Conway’s Restored Pronunciation of Latin and Greek (Pitt Press) or to Messrs. Hale and Buck’s Latin Grammar (Messrs. Ginn and Co.). Something has been said of ph, th, ch in §§ 50 ff. above.
The Latin Accent
§ 85. The rules which state the place of the Accent in Latin words in the time of Cicero are these:
(1) Monosyllables are accented, unless they are Enclitics like -que, -ve, or Proclitics (§ 68) like Prepositions which were pronounced in combination with the word which followed them; thus a phrase like in ménsam has only one accent.
Disyllabic Prepositions, however, retain an accent of their own, though it was generally a weaker accent than that of the word which followed: ínter hóstes had a stronger accent on the syllable hós- than on the syllable ín-.
(2) Disyllabic words were always accented on the first syllable, as mḗnsa, páter, ámat. Some disyllables, however, had become Enclitics like quoque, enim and generally mihi, tibi, sibi and some other pronominal forms; then they threw back their accent as in núnc-quoque, nṓn-enim, and often dī́c mihi.
(3) The only exceptions to the rule just stated are words which have lost a final syllable by elision, as in audī́n ‘do you hear?’ from audī́s-ne; these generally kept the Accent in the same place as it had held when the words were Trisyllabic. For viden see § 95. ​(4) In words of three or more syllables the place of the Accent depends upon the quantity of the Penult, a name derived from paene ultima (syllaba) ‘the almost-last syllable.’
If the Penult is long, it takes the Accent, as amā̋mus, amā́bam, but amābā́mus, amāvḗrunt; volúptas, but voluptā́tis. If the Penult is short, the Accent is on the Ante-Penult, aúdio, óptimus, pétere, requiḗscere.
A syllable of course is long when it contains either a long vowel or a diphthong, or a vowel followed by a consonant which has another consonant following it. Thus in a word like perditus the first syllable is long although the -e- in it is itself a short vowel.
(5) In words which contain two or more syllables before the Accented syllable, there is generally a weaker accent on one of these preceding syllables; in that part of the word this secondary accent is placed just as the chief accent would have been if that part had been a separate word; cónquiḗscere, cónturbā̋bimus, éxagitā́re, but ingúrgitā̋re, exaúctōrāre, where ˝ denotes the chief, ´ the secondary accent.
(6) The place of the chief accent is often changed by a following Enclitic; aúctor, but auctórque, auctṓrem, but aúctōre̋mque; so audī́sti but aúdistī̋n(e).
(7) So in colloquial phrases like the Vocative voluptā́s mea ‘my delight, my darling,’ the addition of mea has pulled the accent of the phrase on to the last syllable of voluptās (on this see also § 95 below).