Subjunctive of Purpose or Result, Subjunctive of Cause and Time, Subjunctive in Indirect Questions, Subjunctive in Indirect Discourse, ELEMENTS OF LATIN GRAMMAR. 1. LATIN GRAMMAR treats of the principles of the Latin language. It comprises four parts: I. ORTHOGRAPHY, which treats of the letters and sounds of the language. II. ETYMOLOGY, which treats of the classification, inflection, and derivation of words. III. SYNTAX, which treats of the construction of sentences. IV. PROSODY, which treats of quantity and versification. PART FIRST. ORTHOGRAPHY. 2. THE Latin alphabet is the same as the English with the omission of w. 2. H is only a breathing, and not strictly entitled to the rank of a letter. 3. Letters are divided into two classes: 4. DIPHTHONGS are combinations of two vowels in one syllable. The most common are-ae, oe, au. ENGLISH METHOD OF PRONUNCIATION. 6. Vowels generally have their long or short English sounds. 3. Between qu and dr, or rt, a approaches the sound of o: quartus. 7. LONG SOUND.-Vowels have their long English sounds-a as in fate, e in mete, i in pine, o in note, u in tube, y in type-in the following situations: 1. In final syllables ending in a vowel: se, si, ser'-vi, ser'-vo, cor'-nu, mi'-sy. 2. In all syllables, before a vowel or diphthong: de'-us de-o'-rum, de'-ae, di-e'-i, ni'-hi-lum.' 2 3. In penultimate and unaccented syllables, not final, before a single consonant or a mute with l or r: pa'-ter, pa'-tres, A'-thos, O'-thrys, do-lo'-ris. But 1) A unaccented has the sound of a final in America: men'-sa. 6) In compounds, when the first part is entire and ends in a consonant, any vowel before such consonant has generally the short sound: a in ab'-es, e in red-it. But those final syllables which, as exceptions, have the long sound before a consonant (8, 1), retain that sound in compounds: post'quam, hos'-ce. 8. SHORT SOUND.-Vowels have the short English sound-a as in fat, e in met, i in pin, o in not, u in tub, y in myth-in the following situations: 1. In final syllables ending in a consonant: a'-mat, a'met, rex'-it, sol, con'-sul, Te'-thys; except post, es final, and os final in plural cases: res, di'-es, hos, a'-gros. 2. In all syllables before x, or any two consonants except a mute with l or r (7, 3): rex'-it, bel'-lum, rex-e'-runt, bel-lo'-rum. 1 In these rules no account is taken of h, as that is only a breathing; hence the first i in nihilum is treated as a vowel before another vowel; for the same reason, ch, ph, and th are treated as single mutes; thus th in Athos and Othrys. 2 Penultimate, the last syllable but one. |