LATIN GRAMMAR.

1.-LATIN GRAMMAR is the art of speaking or writing the Latin language with propriety. It is divided into four parts; namely, Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody.

PART FIRST.

ORTHOGRAPHY.

2.—ORTHOGRAPHY treats of letters, and the mode of combining them into syllables and words.

§ 1. LETTERS.

3.-A LETTER is a mark or character used to represent an elementary sound of the human voice.

The Latin Alphabet consists of twenty-five letters, the same in name and form as those of the English Alphabet, but without the w.

Letters are either Vowels or Consonants.

VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS.

4.-A VOWEL is a letter which represents a simple inarticulate sound and, in a word or syllable, may be sounded alone.

The vowels are a, e, i, o, u, y. In Latin, y is never a consonant as in English.

5.-The union of two vowels in one sound, is called a Diphthong. Diph thongs are of two kinds, proper and improper.

6.—A Proper Diphthong is one in which both the vowels are sounded. The Proper Diphthongs in Latin are three, viz: au, eu, ei; as, aurum, euge, hei.

7.-An Improper Diphthong is one in which only one of the vowels is sounded. The Improper Diphthongs in Latin are ae and oe, often written together, æ, æ; as, tada, pœna.

8.-OBSERVATIONS.

1. Ai and oi are found as diphthongs in proper names from the Greek; as Maia, Troia.

2. After g and q, and sometimes after s, u before another vowel in the same syllable, does not form a diphthong with it, but is to be regarded as an appendage of the preceding consonant, having nearly the force of w, as in the English words, linguist, quick, persuade; thus, lingua, sanguis, qui, quæ, quod, quum, suadeo, are pronounced as if written lingwa, sangwis, kwi, kwa, kwod, kuum, swadeo. So also after c and h in cui and huic, pronounced in one syllable, as if written cwi or kwi, and hwic; also ui after a consonant, in such words from the Greek as Harpuia.

3. Two vowels standing together in different syllables, pronounced in quick succession, resemble the diphthong in sound, and, among the poets, are often run together into one syllable; thus de-in, de-inde, pro-inde, &c., in two and three syllables, are pronounced in one and two, dein, deinde, proinde, &c.

CONSONANTS.

9.-A CONSONANT is a letter which represents an articulate sound, and, in a word or syllable, is never sounded alone, but always in connection with a vowel or diphthong.

10. The consonants in Latin are b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z. Of these, eight, viz, p, b, t, d, c, k, q, and g, are called mutes, because they interrupt or stop the sound of the voice, as b in sub ;-four, viz, ?, m, n, r, are called liquids, because of their fluency, or the ease with which they flow into other sounds, or, in combining with other consonants, are changed one for another;-two are called double consonants, viz, x and z, because they are each equivalent to two other consonants; namely, a to cs or gs, and z to ds. The letter j, likewise, is sounded by us as a double consonant, equivalent to dg, and in prosody is so considered, because, except in compounds of jugum, it uniformly makes the vowel before it long. The letters represents a sibilant or hissing sound. The h is only au aspirate, and denotes a rough breathing: in prosody, it is not regarded as

a consonant. The letters k, y, and z, are used only in words derived from the Greek.

11.-Note. Anciently, the letter j seems to have been more nearly allied to a vowel than to a consonant, and was represented by i; thus, ejus, pejus, &c., were written eius, peius, &c.; and the j thus forming a sort of diphthong with the preceding vowel, of course made the syllable long; as, ei-us, pei-us, &c. In like manner, u and v were represented by the same letter, namely, v.

MARKS AND CHARACTERS.

12. The marks and characters used in Latin Grammar, or in writing Latin, are the following:

Placed over a vowel shows it to be short.

Placed over a vowel shows it to be long.

- Placed over a vowel shows it to be short or long.

Is called Diaresis, and shows that the vowel over which it is placed does not form a diphthong with the preceding vowel, but belongs to a dif ferent syllable; as, aër, pronounced a-er.

The circumflex shows that the syllable over which it stands has beer contracted, and is consequently long, as nuntiârunt for nuntiavērunt, dimicâssent for dimicavissent; or that the vowel over which it is placed, has its long open sound; as, pennâ.

> The grave accent is sometimes placed over particles and adverbs, to distinguish them from other words consisting of the same letters; as, quòd, a conjunction, “ that,” to distinguish it from quod, a relative, “which.”

The acute accent is used to mark the accented syllable of a word as, túba, dominus.

Apostrophe is written over the place of a vowel cut off from the end of a word; as, men' for mene.

PUNCTUATION.

13.-The different divisions of a sentence are marked by certain characters called Points.

The modern punctuation in Latin is the same as in English. The marks employed are the Comma (,); Semicolon (;); Colon (:); Period (.); Interrogation (?); Exclamation (!).

14.-The only mark of punctuation used by the ancients, was a point (.). which denoted pauses of a different length, according as it stood at the top, the middle, or the bottom of the line-that at the top denoting the shortest, and that at the bottom the longest pause.