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A KEY

TO THE

CLASSICAL PRONUNCIATION

OF

Greek, Latin, and Scripture Proper Names;

IN WHICH

THE WORDS ARE ACCENTED AND DIVIDED INTO SYLLABLES
EXACTLY AS THEY OUGHT TO BE PRONOUNCED,

ACCORDING TO RULES DRAWN FROM ANALOGY AND THE BEST USAGE.
TO WHICH ARE ADDED,

TERMINATIONAL VOCABULARIES

THE WORDS ARE ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THEIR FINAL SYLLABLES,
AND CLASSED ACCORDING TO THEIR ACCENTS;

By which the general Analogy of Pronunciation may be seen at one view, and
the Accentuation of each Word more easily remembered.

CONCLUDING WITH

Observations on the Greek and Latin Accent and Quantity;

WITH

SOME PROBABLE CONJECTURES ON THE METHOD OF FREEING THEM
FROM THE OBSCURITY AND CONFUSION IN WHICH THEY ARE

INVOLVED, BOTH BY THE ANCIENTS AND MODERNS.

The THIRD EDITION, with large Additions. Price 7s, Boards.

BY JOHN WALKER,

AUTHOR OF THE CRITICAL PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY,

LONDON,

PRINTED BY J. M'CREERY,

&c.

FOR J. JOHNSON, IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, T. CADELL AND W.
DAVIES, IN THE STRAND, J. WALKER, NO. 46, WILKIE AND ROBIN-
SON, AND G. ROBINSON, NO. 57, IN PATERNOSTER-ROW.

X15

PREFACE.

THE Critical Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language naturally suggested an idea of the present work. Proper names from the Greek and Latin form so considerable a part of every cultivated living language, that a Dictionary seems to be imperfect without them. Polite scholars, indeed, are seldom at a loss for the pronunciation of words they so frequently meet with in the learned languages; but there are great numbers of respectable English scholars, who, having only a tincture of classical learning, are much at a loss for a knowledge of this part of it. It is not only the learned professions that require this knowledge, but almost every one above the merely mechanical. The professors of painting, statuary, and music, and those who admire their works; readers of history, politics, poetry; all who converse on subjects ever so little above the vulgar have so frequent occasion to pronounce these proper names, that whatever tends to render this pronunciation easy must necessarily be acceptable to the Public.

The proper names in Scripture have still a higher claim to our attention. That every thing contained in that precious repository of divine truth should be

their accent and quantity depend so much on their termination, such an arrangement appeared to give an easier and more comprehensive idea of their pronunciation than the common classification by their initial syllables. This end was so desirable as to induce me to 'spare no pains, however dry and disgusting, to promote it; and if the method I have taken has failed, my labour will not be entirely lost if it convinces future prosodists that it is not worthy of their attention.

CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTION.

THE pronunciation of Greek and Latin not so difficult

as that of our own language

The ancient pronunciation of Greek and Latin, a subject
of great controversy among the learned
The English, however faulty in their pronunciation of
Greek and Latin, pronounce them like other European
nations, according to the analogy of their own language
Sufficient vestiges remain to prove that the foreign pronun-
ciation of the Greek and Latin letters is nearer to the
ancient than the English -(Note)

The English pronunciation of Greek and Latin injurious
to quantity

PAGE

No sufficient reason for altering the present pronunciation on
these accounts

Rule for accenting Latin words

Rule for accenting Greek proper names

ix

ibid.

ibid.

xiv

XV

Probable conjecture why the termination tia and tio in Greek

appellatives have not the same sound as in Latin-(Note) xvi

Importance of settling the English quantity with which we

pronounce Greek and Latin proper names, and particu-

larly that of the unaccented syllables

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