THE pronunciation of the learned languages is much more easily acquired than that of our own. Whatever might have been the variety of the different dialects among the Greeks, and the different provinces of the Romans, their languages now being dead, are generally pronounced according to the respective analogies of the several languages of Europe, where those languages are cultivated, without partaking of those anomalies to which the living languages are liable. Whether one general uniform pronunciation of the ancient languages be an object of sufficient importance to induce the learned to depart from the analogy of their own language, and to study the ancient Latin and Greek pronunciation, as they do the etymology, syntax, and prosody of those languages, is a question not very easy to be decided. The question becomes still more difficult when we consider the uncertainty we are in respecting the ancient pronunciation of the Greeks and Romans, and how much the learned are divided among themselves about it.* Till these points are settled, the English may well be allowed to follow their own pronunciation of Greek and Latin, as well as other nations, even though it should be confessed that it seems to depart more from what we can gather of the ancient pronunciation, than either the Italian, French, or German. For why the English should pay a compliment to the learned languages, which is * Middleton contends that the initial e before e and i ought to be pronounced as the Italians now pronounce it; and that Cicero is neither Sisero, as the French and English pronounce it; nor Kikero, as Dr. Bently asserts; but Tchischero, as the Italians pronounce it at this day. This pronunciation, however, is derided by Lipsius, who affirms that the c among the Romans had always the sound of k. Lipsius says too, that of all the European nations, the British alone pronounce the i properly; but Middleton asserts, that of all nations they pronounce it the worst." Mvidleton De Lat. Liter. Pronun. Dissert. Lipsius, speaking of the different pronunciation of the letter G in different countries, says Nos hodie (de literà G loquente) quàm peccamus? Italorum enim plerique ut Z exprimunt, Galli et Belge ut J consonantem. Itaque illorum est Lezere Fuzere; nostrum, Leiere, Fuiere (Lejere, Fugere.) Omnia imperite, inepté. Gerinanos saltem audite, quorum sonus hic germanus, Legere Tejere; ut in Lego, Tego, nec unquam variant: at nos ante I, E, J, Y, semper dicimusque Jemmam, Jatulos, Jinjivam, Jurum; pro istis, Gemmam, Gœtulos, Gingivam, Gyrum. Muteinus aut vapulemus.-Lipsius. De Rect. Pron. Ling. Lat. page 71. Hine factum est ut tanta in pronunciando varietas extiteret ut pauci inter se in literarum sonis consentiant. Quod quidem mirum non esset, si indocti tantum a doctis in eo, ac non ipsi etiam alioqui eruditi inter se magna contentione dissiderent.-Adolph, Meker. De Lin. Græc. vet. Promm. cap. ii. page 15. Monsieur Launcelot, the learned author of the Port-Royal Greek Grammar, in order to convey the sound of the long Greek vowel n, tells us, it is a sound between the e and the a, and that Eusta thius, who lived towards the close of the twelfth century, says, that Bi, Bh, is a sound made in imita tion of the bleating of a sheep; and quotes to this purpose this verse of an ancient writer called Cratinus: 108 haror Morrp #poSiron, Bi, B5, Ahyar Basilei. Is fatuus perinde ac ovis, be, bé, dicens, incedit. Caninius has remarked the same, Hellen. p. 26. E longum, cujus, sonus in ovium balatu sentitur, ut Cratinus et Varro tradiderunt. The sound of the e long may be perceived in the bleating of sheep, as Cratinus and Varro have handed down to us. Eustathius likewise remarks upon the 499 v. of Iliad I. that the word BA arv å ris urbílgas xor mannos wardres malains ; Bi txti Hawaiy wpatriar parts. Kparvos. Baid est Clepsydre sonus, ex imitatione, secundum veteres; et B imitatur vocem ovium. Blops, according to the ancients, is a sound in imitation of the Clepsydra, as bu is expressive of the voice of sheep. It were to be wished that the sound of every Greek vowel had been conveyed to us by as faithful a testimony as the nra; we should certainly have had a better idea of that harmony for which the Greek language was so famous, and in which respect Quintilian candidly yields it the preference to the Latin. Aris tophanes has handed down to us the pronunciation of the Greck diphthong of a by making it expressive of the barking of a dog. This pronunciation is exactly like that preserved by nurses and children among us to this day in bete teow. This is the sound of the saine letters in the Latin tongue; not only in proper names derived from Greek, but in every other word where this diphthong occurs. Most nations in Europe, perhaps all but the English, pronounce audio and laudo, as it written ordio and ledo; the diphthong sounding like on in loud. Agreeably to this rule, it is presumed that we formerly pronounced the apostle Pod nearer the original than at present. In Heary the Eighth's time it was written St. Powie's, and sermons were preached at Poule's Cross. The vulgar, generally the last to alter, either for the better or worse, still have a jingling proverb with this pronunciation, when they say h dd as Poutes The sound of the letter u is no less sincerely preserved in Plautus, in Menæch. page 622, edit. Lambin, in making use of it to imitate the cry of an owl→→ "Men. Egon' dedi? PEN Tu, Tu, istic, inquam, vin' afferri noctuam, “Quæ tu, tu, usque dicat tibi nam nos jam nos defessi sumus." "It appears here," says Mr. Forster, in his defence of the Greek accents, page 129, " that an owl's cry was tu, tu, to a Roman ear, as it is too, too, to an English" Lambin, who was a French man, observes on the passage, “ Alludit ad noctute vorem seu cantum, fu, tu, sew tow, tw" He here alludes to the voice or noise of an owl. It may be farther observed, that the English have totally departed from this sound of the s in their own language, as well as in their pronunciation of Latin. not done by any other nation in Europe, it is not easy to conceive; and as the colloqual tan munication of learned individuals of different nations so seldom happens, and is an object ef small importance when it does happen, it is not much to be regretted that when they meet tar are scarcely intelligible to each other.* But the English are accused not only of departing from the genuine sound of the Greek Latin vowels, but of violating the quantity of these languages more than the people of any nation in Europe. The author of the Essay upon the Harmony of Language gives us a den. the particulars by which this accusation is proved: and this is so true a picture of the English nunciation of Latin, that I shall quote it at length, as it may be of use to those who are to learn this language without the aid of a teacher. "The falsification of the harmony by English scholars in their pronunciation of Latin, gard to essential points, arises from two causes only, first, from a total inattention to the of vowel sounds, making them long or short merely as chance directs; and secoudy, & r sounding double consonants as only one letter. The remedy of this last fault is obviou regard to the first, we have already observed, that each of our vowels hath its general long and its general short sound totally different. Thus the short sound of e lengthened is expres the letter a, and the short sound of i lengthened is expressed by the letter e and with a anomalies usual in the application of vowel characters to the vowel sounds of our own larg. 5 we proceed to the application of vowel sounds to the vowel characters of the Latin. Thus .st syllable of sidus and nomen, which ought to be long; and of miser and ons, which organ be short; we equally use the common long sound of the vowels; but in the oblique cases, ir nominis, miseri, oneris, &c., we use quite another sound, and that a short one. These stra anomalies are not in common to us with our southern neighbours the French, Spaniards, and la lians. They pronounce sidus according to our orthography, seedus, and in the oblique cases serve the same long sound of the i: nomen, they pronounce as we do, and preserve in the off cases the same long sound of the o. The Italians also, in their own language, pronounce do consonants as distinctly as the two most discordant mutes of their alphabet. Whatever, fe fore, they may want of expressing the true harmony of the Latin language, they certainly rem the most glaring and absurd faults in our manner of pronouncing it. "It is a matter of curiosity to observe with what regularity we use these solecisms in the see nunciation Latin When the perultimate is accented, its vowel, if followed but by a st consonant, is always tong, as in Dr. Forster's examples. When the antepenultimate is 2000 its vowel is, without any regard to the requisite quantity pronounced short, as in mirası, Predus, except the vowel of the penultimate be followed by a vowel, and then the vowel of the tepenultimate is with as little regard to true quantity pronounced long, as in manco, reith um, imperium. Quantity is however vitiated to make i short even in this case, as in pea, virium. The only difference we make in pronunciation between vinea, and rentia is, tha & the vowel of the first syllable of the former, which ought to be long, we give a short somĆ, V that of the latter which ought to be short, we give the same sound but lengthened. Uactar is always before a single consonant pronounced long, as in humerus, fugiens. Before two . nants no vowel sound is ever made long, except that of the diphthong au; so that where doubled consonant occurs, the preceding syllable is short. Unaccented vowels we treat will se more ceremony in Latin than in our own language." Essay upon the Harmony of Langua page 224. Printed for Robson, 1774. This, it must be owned, is a very just state of the Ase; but though the Latin quantity is the violated, it is not, as this writer observes in the first part of the quotation, merely a rects, but as he afterwards observes, regularly, and he might have added, according to the logy of English pronunciation, which, it may be observed has a genius of its own; and if not so well adapted to the pronunciation of Greek and Latin as some other modern lan guages, has as fixed and settled rules for pronouncing them as any other. The learned and ingenious author next proceeds to show the advantages of pronouncing ** vowels so as to express the Latin quantity. "We have reason to suppose," says he, our usual accentuation of Latin, however it may want of many elegancies in the prom tion of the Augustan age, is yet sufficiently just to give with tolerable accuracy that para the general harmony of the language of which accent is the efficient. We have also pretty Information from the poets what syllables ought to have a long, and what a short quantity preserve, then, in our pronunciation, the true harmony of the language, we have only to take to give the vowels a long sound or a short sound, as the quantity may require; and when c consonants occur, to pronounce each distinctly." Ibid. p. 223.‡ * Erasmus se adfuisse olim commemorat cum die quodam solenni complures principum kat Maximilianuun Imperatorem salutandi causà advenissent; Singulosque Gallum, Germanum, L`a → Scotum, &c. orationem Latinam, ita barbare ac vaste pronunciasse, ut Italis quibusdam, AZ risum moveriat, qui cos non Latine sed sua quemque lingua, locutos jurassent.—Middleca, in in Lit. Pronun. The love of the marvellous prevails over truth; and I question if the greatest diversity in the m nunciation of Latin exceeds that of English at the capital and in some of the counties of Zoe 2m and yet the inhabitants of both have no great difficulty in understanding each other. This corruption of the true quantity is not, however, peculiar to the English; for Bern on plains in his country: Hinc enim fit ut in Graca oratione vel nullum, vel prorsus corrupica rum intelligas, dun multe breves producuntur, et contrà plurimæ longæ corripiuutur. Deza " Germ. Pron. Græcæ Linguæ, p. 50. By what this learned author has observed of our vicious pronunciation of the vowels, ** long and short sound of them, and from the instances he has given, he must mean that le shortness which arises from extending and contracting them, independently of the obstwhich two consonants are supposed to occasion in forming the long quantity. Thus we arɔ 2Hounce Manus as if written and divided into Man-nus; and Pannus as if written Pams, or ** * always hear the word Panis (bread ;) for in this sound of Pannus there seems to be no nece pronouncing the two consonants distinctly or separately, which he seems to mean by dista because the quantity is shown by the long sound of the vowel: but if by distinctly be separately, that is, as if what is called in French the cheva or mute e were to foliowie da I In answer to this plea for alteration, it may be observed, that if this mode of pronouncing Latin be that of foreign nations, and were really so superiour to our own, we certainly must perceive it in the pronunciation of foreigners, when we visit them, or they us; but I think I may appeal to the experience of every one who has had an opportunity of making the experiment, that so far from a superiority on the side of the foreign pronunciation, it seems much inferiour to our own. I am aware of the power of habit, and of its being able, on many occasions, to make the worse appear the better reason; but if the harmony of the Latin language depended so much on a preservation of the quantity as many pretend, this harmony would surely overcome the bias we have to our own pronunciation; especially if our own were realy so destructive of harmony as it is said to be. Till, therefore, we have a more accurate idea of the nature of quantity, and of that beauty and harmony, of which it is said to be the efficient in the pronunciation of Latin, we ought to preserve a pronunciation which has naturally sprung up in our own soil, and is congenial so our native language. Besides, an alteration of this kind would be attended with so much dispute and uncertainty as must make it highly impolitic to attempt it. The analogy, then, of our own language being the rule for pronouncing the learned languages, we shall have little occasion for any other directions for the pronunciation of the Greek and Latin proper names, than such as are given for the pronunciation of English words. The general rules are followed almost without exception. The first and most obvious powers of the letters are adopted, and there is scarcely any difficulty but in the position of the accent; and this depends so much on the quantity of the vowels, that we need only inspect a dictionary to find the quantity of the penultimate vowel, and this determines the accent of all the Latin words; and it may be added, of almost all Greek words likewise. Now in our pronunciation of Latin words, whatever be the quantity of the first syllable in a word of two syllables, we always place the accent on it: but in words of more syllables, if the penultimate be long, we place the accent on that; and if short we accent the antepenultimate. The Rules of the Latin Accentuation are comprised in a clear and concise manner by Sanctius within four hexameters : Accentum in se ipsâ monosyllaba dictio ponit. These rules I have endeavoured to express in English verse: Must on the last but two its force express. The only difference that seems to obtain between the pronunciation of the Greek and Latin anguages is, that in the Latin ti and si, preceded by an accent, and followed by another vowel orming an improper diphthong, are pronounced as in English, like sh or zh, as natio, nation, versuasio, persuasion, &c.; and that in the Greek, the same letters retain their pure sound, as pikastia, dysola, #gobation, #. 1. A. This difference, however, with very few exceptions, does hot extend to proper names; which, coming to us through, and being mingled with, the Latin, consonant, this could not be done without adding a syllable to the word; and the word Pannus vould in that case certainly have three syllables, as if written Paneh-nus.-See Observations on he Greek and Latin Accent and Quantity, sect. 24. That is, in the general pronunciation of Greek; for, let the written accent be placed where it vill, the quantitative accent, as it may be called, follows the analogy of the Latin. "The Greek language," says the learned critic, "was happy in not being understood by the Goths, who would as certainly have corrupted the t in alra, ris, &c. into aldia, weio, &c. as hey did in the Latin motio and doceo into moshio and dosheo." This, however, may be questioned; or if in Latin words this impure sound of t take place only in those words where the accent is on ne preceding vowel, as in natio, facio, &c.; but not when the accent follows the t, and is on the ollowing vowel, as in satietas, societas, &c. why should we suppose any other mode of pronunciation would have been adopted by the Goths in their pronouncing the Greek? Now no rule of pronunciaion is more uniform in the Greek language than that which places an acute on the iota at the end of words, when this letter is succeeded by a long vowel; and consequently if the accent be preserved pon the proper letter, it is impossible the preceding t and s should go into the sound of sh; why herefore, may we not suppose that the very frequent accentuation of the penultimate i before a inal vowel preserved the preceding from going into the sound of sh, as it was a difference of iccentuation that occasioned this impure sound of t in the Latin language? for though i at the end of words, when followed by a long vowel, or a vowel once long and afterwards contracted, had always the accent on it in Greek; in Latin the accent was always on the preceding syllable in words of this termination: and hence seems to have arisen the corruption of in the Gothic pronunciation of the Latin language. It is highly probable, that in Lucian's time the Greek 1, when followed by i and another vowel, sad not assumed the sound of &; for the Sigma would not have failed to accuse him of a usurpation of her powers, as he had done of her character: and if we have preserved the pare in this situa tion when we pronounce Greek, it is, perhaps, rather to be placed to the preserving power of the Accented i in so great a number of words, than any adherence to the ancient rules of pronunciation which invariably athrm, that the consonants had but one sound; unless we except they before 7, *. *. ; as difíkos, ȧywga, dyx σтa, ■. T. À. where the 7 is sounded like : but this, says Henry Stephens, is an errour of the copyists, who have a little extended the bottom of the », and made a 7 of it: for, says he, it is ridiculous to suppose that was changed into 7, and at the same time that y should be pronounced like . On the contrary, Scaliger says, that where we find any before * Ainsworth on the letter 2. fall into the general rule. In the same manner, though in Greek it was an established main that if the last syllable were long, the accent could scarcely be higher than the penultimate, n in our pronunciation of Greek, and particularly of proper names, the Latin analogy of the accom is adopted and though the last syllable is long in Demosthenes Aristophanes, Therament, Deiphobe, yet as the penultimate is short, the accent is placed on the antepenultimate, exactly a they were Latin.* As these languages have been long dead, they admit of no new varieties of accent like the living languages. The common accentuation of Greek and Latin may be seen in Lexicons and Gradis and where the ancients indulged a variety, and the moderns are divided in their opinions about the most classical accentuation of words, it would be highly improper, in a work intended in general use, to enter into the thorny disputes of the learned; and it may be truly said, is m hyming adage, When Doctors disagree, This, however, has not been entirely neglected. Where there has been any considerable diver sity of accentuation among our prosodists, I have consulted the best authorities, and have sometime ventured to decide: though, as Labbe says, "Sed his de rebus, ut aliis multis, malo doctocam judicium expectare, quam meam in medium proferre sententiam." But the most important object of the present work is settling the English quantity, (see Rin 20, 21, 22) with which we pronounce Greek and Latin proper names, and the sounds of some i the consonants. These are points in a state of great uncertainty; and are to be settled, not so mut by a deep knowledge of the dead languages, as by a thorough acquaintance with the analogies a general usage of our own tongue. These must in the nature of things, enter largely into t pronunciation of a dead language; and it is from an attention to these that the author hopes he ta given to the public a work not entirely unworthy of their acceptance. these letters, as avxuga, it is an errour of the copyists, who imagined they better expressed fr pronunciation by this letter, which, as Vossius observes, should seem to demand someti particular and uncommon. It is reported of Scaliger, that when he was accosted by a Scotchman in Latin, he beg his pardon for not understanding him, as he had never learned the Scotch language te were the case with the pronunciation of a Scotchman, which is so near that of the Coptan what would he have said to the Latin pronunciation of an Englishman? I take it, however, die this diversity is greatly exaggerated. This, however, was contrary to the general practice of the Romans; for Victorious in he Grammar says, Græca nomina, si iisdem literis proferuntur, (Latine versa) Græcos accetus kabinet nam cum dicimus Thyas, Nais, acutum habebit posterior accentum; et cum Themistio, Calapan, Tham, ultimam circumflecti videbimus, quod utrumque Latinus sermo non patitur, nisi admodum mera "If Greek nouns turned into Latin are pronounced with the same letters, they have the Great accent: for when we say, Thyas, Nais, the latter syllable has the acute accent; and when pronounce Themistio, Calypso, Theano, we see the last syllable is circumflexed; neither of which ever seen in Latin words or very rarely.”—Servius Forster, Reply, page 31 Notes 32, batt RULES FOR PRONOUNCING THE VOWELS OF GREEK AND LATIN PROPER NAMES 1. EVERY vowel with the accent on it at the end of a syllable is pronounced as in English, with its first long open sound : thus Ca'to, Philome'ta, Orion, Phorion, Let'cifer, &c. have the accented vowels sounded exactly as in the English words pa'per, me'tre, spider, no'ble, tu'tor, &c. 2. Every accented vowel not ending a syllable, but followed by a consonant, has the short sound as in English: thus Man'lius, Pen'thens, Pin'darus, Col'ckis, Curtius, &c. have the short sound of the accented vowels, as in man'ner, plenty, printer, collar, curfew, &c. 3. Every final i, though unaccented, has the long open sound : thus the finali forming the genitive case, as in Magistri, or the plural number, as in De'cii, has the long open sound, as in vial, and this sound we give to this vowel in this situation, because the Latin i final in genitives, plurals, and preterperfect tenses of verbs, is always long; and consequently where the accented is followed by i final, both are pronounced with the long diphthongali, like the noun eye, as Arhiri.t 4 Every unaccented i ending a syllable not final, as that in the second of Alcibiades, the Hermici, &c. is pronounced like e, as if written Alcebiades, the Herneci, &c. So the last syllable but one of the Fabii, the Horatii, the Curiattii, &c. is pronounced as if written, Fa-be-i, Ho-ra-she-i, Cu-re-a-she-i and therefore if the unaccented i and the diphthong a conclude a word, they are both pronounced like e, as Harmice, Harpyle-e. 5. The diphthongs a and a, ending a syllable with the accent on it, are pronounced exactly like the long English e, as Casar, (Eta, &c. as it written Cee'sar, Eta, &c; and like the short e, when followed by a consonant in the same syllable, as Daedalus, Edipus, &c. pronounced as if written Deddalus, Eddipus, &c. The vowels ei are generally pronounced like long i-For the vowels eu in final syllables, see the word Idomeus; and for the on in the same syllables, see the word Antinous, and similar words, in the Terminational Vocabulary. 6. Y is exactly under the same predicament as i. It is long when ending an accented syllable, as Cyrus; or when ending an unaccented syllable if final, as Agy, py, &c. short when joined to a consonant in the same syllable, as Lucidas; and sometimes long and sometimes short, when nding an initial syllable not under the accent, as Ly-curgus, pronounced with the first syllable like de, a falsehood; and Lysimachus with the first syllable like the first of legion; or nearly as if divided into Las-im'a-chus, &c. See Principles of English Pronunciation prefixed to the Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, No. 117, 118, &c. and 135, 16, 187. 7 A, ending an unaccented syllable, has the same obscure sound as in the same situation in English words; but it is a sound bordering on the Italian a, or the a in fa-ther, as Dix'na, where the difference between the accented and unaccented a is palpable. See Principles of English Pronunciation prefixed to the Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, No. 92, and the letter A. 8. E final, either with or without the preceding consonant, always forms a distinct syllable, as Penelope, Hippocrene, Ecoe, Amphitrite, &r. When any Greek or Latin word is anglicised into this termination, by cutting of a syllable of the original, it becomes then an English word, and is pronounced according to our own analogy: thus, Acidalins, altered to Acidate, has the final e sunk and is a word of three syllables only: Proserpine, from Proserpina, undergoes the same alteration Theber and Athens, derived from the Greek @nn and Ainin, and the Latin Thebee and Athence, are perfectly anglicised; the former into a monosyllable, and the latter into a dissyllable; and the Greek Kon and the Latin Creta have both sunk into the English monosyllable Crete: Hecate hkewise pronounced in three syllables when Latin, and in the same number in the Greek word Eam; in English is universally contracted into two, by sinking the final e. Shakspeare seems to have begun as he has now confirmed this pronunciation by so adapting the word in Macbeth: · "Why how now, Hecat'? you look angerly."Act IV. Perhaps this was no more than a poetical license in him; but the actors have adopted it in the songs in Cis tragedy "He-cate, He-ce, come away"--------- And the play going world, who form no small portion of what is called the better sort of people, have followed the actors in this word: and the rest of the world have followed them. The Roman magistrate, named Edilis, is anglicised by pronouncing it in two syllables, Ædik. The capital of Sicily, Sorruse, of four syllables, is made three in the English Syracuse; and tae city of Turus, of two syllables, is reduced to a monosyllable in the English Tyre. ⚫ This pronunciation of Cate, Plato, Cleopatra, &c. has been but lately adopted. Quin, and all the old dramate school, used to pronounce the a in these and similar words like the a in father. Mr. Garrick, with great good senso as well as good taste, brought in the present pronunciation, and the propriety of it has made it now universal. This is the true analogical pronunciation of the letter when ending an accented syllable; but a most disgraceful ffectations of foreign pronunciation has exchanged his full diphthongal sound for the meagre, squeezed sound of the French and Italian, not only in almost every word derived from those languages, but in many which are purely Latin, as Faustina, Messalina, &e. Nay, words from the Saxon have been equally perverted, and we hear the in Elfrida, Edonna, &c. turned into Efrenda, Edimena, &c. It is true this is the sound the Romans gave to their i; but the speakers hi alluded to are perfectly innocent of this, and da pot pronounce it in this manner for its antiquity, but its novelty See Elegria, Hygeia, &c. in the Termiational Vocabulary of threek and Latin Proper Names. B |