Society for Pure English Tract 4 by John Sargeaunt
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Transcriber's Note: Phonetic characters are represented by the
following symbols:
[`x] = any letter "x" with grave accent
['x] = any letter "x" with acute accent
[:x] = any letter "x" with superior double-dot (dieresis)
[^x] = any letter "x" with superior circumflex
[=x] = any letter "x" with superior macron
[)x] = any letter "x" with superior breve
[e] = inverted "e" or schwa
[ae], [oe] = ae, oe ligature characters
[=xy] = any pair of letters "xy" with joining macron, except
[=OE], [=ae] = OE, ae ligature characters with macron and
['oe], ['ae] = oe, ae ligature characters with acute accent and
[)xy] = any pair of letters "xy" with joining breve, except
[)AE], [)ae], [)OE], [)oe] = AE, ae, OE, oe ligature characters
with breve
[^1] = raised "1", etc.
_S.P.E. TRACT NO. IV_
THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH WORDS DERIVED FROM THE LATIN
BY JOHN SARGEAUNT
WITH PREFACE AND NOTES BY H. BRADLEY
CORRESPONDENCE & MISCELLANEOUS NOTES BY H.B., R.B., W.H.F., AND
EDITORIAL
_AT THE CLARENDON PRESS_ MDCCCCXX
ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH WORDS DERIVED FROM LATIN
[This paper may perhaps need a few words of introduction concerning
the history of the pronunciation of Latin in England.
The Latin taught by Pope Gregory's missionaries to their English
converts at the beginning of the seventh century was a living
language. Its pronunciation, in the mouths of educated people when
they spoke carefully, was still practically what it had been in
the first century, with the following important exceptions. 1. The
consonantal _u_ was sounded like the _v_ of modern English, 2. The
_c_ before front vowels (_e_, _i_, _o_, _[ae]_, _[oe]_), and the
combinations _t[)i]_, _c[)i]_ before vowels, were pronounced _ts_. 3.
The _g_ before front vowels had a sound closely resembling that of the
Latin consonantal _i_. 4. The _s_ between vowels was pronounced like
our _s_. 5. The combinations _[ae]_, _[oe]_ were no longer pronounced
as diphthongs, but like the simple _e_. 6. The ancient vowel-quantities
were preserved only in the penultima of polysyllables (where they
determined the stress); in all other positions the original system of
quantities had given place to a new system based mainly on rhythm. Of
this system in detail we have little certain knowledge; but one of
its features was that the vowel which ended the first syllable of
a disyllabic was always long: _p[=a]ter_, _p[=a]trem_, _D[=e]us_,
_p[=i]us_, _[=i]ter_, _[=o]vis_, _h[=u]mus_.
Even so early as the beginning of the fifth century, St. Augustine
tells us that the vowel-quantities, which it was necessary to learn
in order to write verse correctly, were not observed in speech. The
Latin-speaking schoolboy had to learn them in much the same fashion as
did the English schoolboy of the nineteenth century.
It is interesting to observe that, while the English scholars of
the tenth century pronounced their Latin in the manner which their
ancestors had learned from the continental missionaries, the tradition
of the ancient vowel-quantities still survived (to some extent at
least) among their British neighbours, whose knowledge of Latin was an
inheritance from the days of Roman rule. On this point the following
passage from the preface to [AE]lfric's Latin Grammar (written for
English schoolboys about A.D. 1000) is instructive:--
Miror ualde quare multi corripiunt sillabas in prosa quae in
metro breues sunt, cum prosa absoluta sit a lege metri; sicut
pronuntiant _pater_ brittonice et _malus_ et similia, quae in
metro habentur breues. Mihi tamen uidetur melius inuocare Deum
Patrem honorifice producta sillaba quam brittonice corripere,
quia nec Deus arti grammaticae subiciendus est.
The British contagion of which [AE]lfric here complains had no
permanent effect. For after the Norman Conquest English boys learned
their Latin from teachers whose ordinary language was French. For a
time, they were not usually taught to write or read English, but only
French and Latin; so that the Englishmen who attempted to write their
native language did so in a phonetic orthography on a French basis.
The higher classes in England, all through the thirteenth century, had
two native languages, English and French.
In the grammar schools, the Latin lessons were given in French; it was
not till the middle of the fourteenth century that a bold educational
reformer, John Cornwall, could venture to make English the vehicle
of instruction. In reading Latin, the rhythmically-determined
vowel-quantities of post-classical times were used; and the Roman
letters were pronounced, first as they were in French, and afterwards
as in English, but in the fourteenth century this made little
difference.
In Chaucer's time, the other nations of Europe, no less than England,
pronounced Latin after the fashion of their own vernaculars. When,
subsequently, the phonetic values of the letters in the vernacular
gradually changed, the Latin pronunciation altered likewise. Hence, in
the end, the pronunciation of Latin has become different in different
countries. A scholar born in Italy has great difficulty in following
a Frenchman speaking Latin. He has greater difficulty in understanding
an Englishman's Latin, because in English the changes in the sounds
of the letters have been greater than in any other language. Every
vowel-letter has several sounds, and the normal long sound of every
vowel-letter has no resemblance whatever to its normal short sound. As
in England the pronunciation of Latin developed insensibly along with
that of the native tongue, it eventually became so peculiar that by
comparison the 'continental pronunciation' may be regarded as uniform.
It is sometimes imagined that the modern English way of pronouncing
Latin was a deliberate invention of the Protestant reformers. For this
view there is no foundation in fact. It may be conceded that English
ecclesiastics and scholars who had frequent occasion to converse in
Latin with Italians would learn to pronounce it in the Italian way;
and no doubt the Reformation must have operated to arrest the growing
tendency to the Italianization of English Latin. But there is no
evidence that before the Reformation the un-English pronunciation was
taught in the schools. The grammar-school pronunciation of the early
nineteenth century was the lineal descendant of the grammar-school
pronunciation of the fourteenth century.
This traditional system of pronunciation is now rapidly becoming
obsolete, and for very good reasons. But it is the basis of the
pronunciation of the many classical derivatives in English; and
therefore it is highly important that we should understand precisely
what it was before it began to be sophisticated (as in our own early
days) by sporadic and inconsistent attempts to restore the classical
quantities. In the following paper Mr. Sargeaunt describes, with a
minuteness not before attempted, the genuine English tradition of
Latin pronunciation, and points out its significance as a factor in
the development of modern English.
H.B.]
* * * * *
It seems not to be generally known that there is a real principle
in the English pronunciation of words borrowed from Latin and Greek,
whether directly or through French. In this matter the very knowledge
of classical Latin, of its stresses and its quantities, still more
perhaps an acquaintance with Greek, is apt to mislead. Some speakers
seem to think that their scholarship will be doubted unless they say
'doctr['i]nal' and 'script['u]ral' and 'cin['e]ma'. The object of
this paper is to show by setting forth the principles consciously or
unconsciously followed by our ancestors that such pronunciations are
as erroneous as in the case of the ordinary man they are unnatural and
pedantic. An exception for which there is a reason must of course be
accepted, but an exception for which reason is unsound is on every
ground to be deprecated. Among other motives for preserving the
traditional pronunciation must be reckoned the claim of poetry. Mark
Pattison notes how a passage of Pope which deals with the Barrier
Treaty loses much of its effect because we no longer stress the second
syllable of 'barrier'. Pope's word is gone beyond recovery, but others
which are threatened by false theories may yet be preserved.
The _New English Dictionary_, whose business it is to record facts,
shows that in not a few common words there is at present much
confusion and uncertainty concerning the right pronunciation. This
applies mostly to the position of the stress or, as some prefer to
call it, the accent, but in many cases it is true also of the quantity
of the vowels. It is desirable to show that there is a principle in
this matter, rules which have been naturally and unconsciously obeyed,
because they harmonize with the genius of the English tongue.
For nearly three centuries from the Reformation to the Victorian era
there was in this country a uniform pronunciation of Latin. It had its
own definite principles, involving in some cases a disregard of the
classical quantities though not of the classical stress or accent. It
survives in borrowed words such as _[=a]li[)a]s_ and _st[)a]mina_,
in naturalized legal phrases, such as _N[=i]s[=i] Prius_ and _[=o]nus
probandi_, and with some few changes in the Westminster Play. This
pronunciation is now out of fashion, but, since its supersession does
not justify a change in the pronunciation of words which have become
part of our language, it will be well to begin with a formulation of
its rules.
The rule of Latin stress was observed as it obtained in the time
of Quintilian. In the earliest Latin the usage had been other, the
stress coming as early in the word as was possible. Down to the days
of Terence and probably somewhat later the old rule still held good
of quadrisyllables with the scansion of _m[)u]l[)i][)e]r[)i]s_ or
_m[)u]l[)i][)e]r[=e]s_, but in other words had given way to the later
Quintilian rule, that all words with a long unit as penultimate
had the stress on the vowel in that unit, while words of more
than two syllables with a short penultimate had the stress on the
antepenultimate. I say 'unit' because here, as in scansion, what
counts is not the syllable, but the vowel plus all the consonants
that come between it and the next vowel. Thus _inf['e]rnus_, where
the penultimate vowel is short, no less than _supr['e]mus_, where it
is long, has the stress on the penultima. In _volucris_, where the
penultimate unit was short, as it was in prose and could be in verse,
the stress was on the _o_, but when _ucr_ made a long unit the
stress comes on the _u_, though of course the vowel remains short. In
polysyllables there was a secondary stress on the alternate vowels.
Ignorance of this usage has made a present-day critic falsely accuse
Shakespeare of a false quantity in the line
Cor['i]ol['a]nus in Cor['i]oli.
It may be safely said that from the Reformation to the nineteenth
century no Englishman pronounced the last word otherwise than I
have written it. The author of the Pronouncing Dictionary attached
to the 'Dictionary of Gardening' unfortunately instructs us to say
_gl['a]diolus_ on the ground that the _i_ is short. The ground
alleged, though true, is irrelevant, and, although Terence would have
pronounced it _gl['a]diolus_, Quintilian, like Cicero, would have said
_glad['i]olus_. Mr. Myles quotes Pliny for the word, but Pliny would
no more have thought of saying _gl['a]diolus_ than we should now think
of saying 'labo['u]r' except when we are reading Chaucer.
We need not here discuss the dubious exceptions to this rule, such
as words with an enclitic attached, e.g. _prim[)a]que_ in which some
authorities put the stress on the vowel which precedes the enclitic,
or such clipt words as 'illuc', where the stress may at one time have
fallen on the last vowel. In any case no English word is concerned.
In very long words the due alternation of stressed and unstressed
vowels was not easy to maintain. There was no difficulty in
such a combination as _h['o]nor['i]fic['a]bil['i]_ or as
_tud['i]nit['a]tib['u]s_, but with the halves put together there
would be a tendency to say _h['o]nor['i]ficabilit['u]dinit['a]tibus_.
Thus there ought not to be much difficulty in saying
_C['o]nstant['i]nop['o]lit['a]ni_, whether you keep the long
antepenultima or shorten it after the English way; but he
who forced the reluctant word to end an hexameter must have
had 'Constantin['o]ple' in his mind, and therefore said
_Const['a]ntin['o]polit['a]ni_ with two false stresses. The result
was an illicit lengthening of the second _o_. His other false
quantity, the shortening of the second _i_, was due to the English
pronunciation, the influence of such words as 'metropol[)i]tan', and,
as old schoolmasters used to put it, a neglect of the Gradus. Even
when the stress falls on this antepenultimate _i_, it is short in
English speech. Doubtless Milton shortened it in 'Areopagitica', just
as English usage made him lengthen the initial vowel of the word.
Probably very few of the Englishmen who used the traditional
pronunciation of Latin knew that they gave many different sounds to
each of the symbols or letters. Words which have been transported
bodily into English will provide examples under each head. It will be
understood that in the traditional pronunciation of Latin these words
were spoken exactly as they are spoken in the English of the present
day. For the sake of simplicity it may be allowed us to ignore some
distinctions rightly made by phoneticians. Thus the long initial vowel
of _alias_ is not really the same as the long initial vowel of _area_,
but the two will be treated as identical. It will thus be possible to
write of only three kinds of vowels, long, short, and obscure.
The letter or symbol _a_ stood for two long sounds, heard in the first
syllables of _alias_ and of _larva_, for the short sound heard in the
first syllable of _stamina_, and for the obscure sound heard in the
last syllable of each of these last two words in English.
The letter _e_ stood for the long sounds heard in _genus_ and in
_verbum_, for the short sound heard in _item_, and for the obscure
sound heard in _cancer_. When it ended a word it had, if short, the
sound of a short _i_, as in _pro lege_, _rege_, _grege_, as also in
unstressed syllables in such words as _precentor_ and _regalia_.
The letter _i_ stood for the two long sounds heard in _minor_ and in
_circus_ and for the short sound heard in _premium_ and _incubus_.
The letter _o_ stood for the two long sounds heard in _odium_ and in
_corpus_, for the short sound in _scrofula_, and for the obscure in
_extempore_.
The two long sounds of _u_ are heard in _rumor_, if that spelling
may be allowed, and in the middle syllable of _laburnum_, the two
short sounds in the first _u_ of _incubus_ and in the first _u_ of
_lustrum_, the obscure sound in the final syllables of these two
words. Further the long sound was preceded except after _l_ and _r_ by
a parasitic _y_ as in _albumen_ and _incubus_. This parasitic _y_ is
perhaps not of very long standing. In some old families the tradition
still compels such pronunciations as _moosic_.
The diphthongs _[ae]_ and _[oe]_ were merely _e_, while _au_ and
_eu_ were sounded as in our _August_ and _Euxine_. The two latter
diphthongs stood alone in never being shortened even when they were
unstressed and followed by two consonants. Thus men said _[=Eu]stolia_
and _[=Au]gustus_, while they said _[)[AE]]schylus_ and _[)OE]dipus._
Dryden and many others usually wrote the _[AE]_ as _E_. Thus Garrick
in a letter commends an adaptation of 'Eschylus', and although Boswell
reports him as asking Harris 'Pray, Sir, have you read Potter's
_[AE]schylus_?' both the speaker and the reporter called the name
_Eschylus_.
The letter _y_ was treated as _i_.
The consonants were pronounced as in English words derived from
Latin. Thus _c_ before _e_, _i_, _y_, _[ae]_, and _[oe]_ was _s_, as in
_census_, _circus_, _Cyrus_, _C[ae]sar_, and _c[oe]lestial_, a spelling
not classical and now out of use. Elsewhere _c_ was _k_. Before the
same vowels _g_ was _j_ (d[ezh]), as in _genus_, _gibbus_, _gyrus_.
The sibilant was voiced or voiceless as in English words, the one in
_rosaceus_, the other in _saliva_.
It will be seen that the Latin sounds were throughout frankly
Anglicized. According to Burney a like principle was followed by
Burke when he read French poetry aloud. He read it as though it were
English. Thus on his lips the French word _comment_ was pronounced as
the English word _comment_.
The rule that overrode all others, though it has the exceptions given
below, was that vowels and any other diphthongs than _au_ and _eu_, if
they were followed by two consonants, were pronounced short. Thus _a_
in _magnus_, though long in classical Latin, was pronounced as in our
'magnitude', and _e_ in _census_, in Greek transcription represented
by [Greek: eta], was pronounced short, as it is when borrowed into
English. So were the penultimate vowels in _villa_, _nullus_, _c[ae]spes_.
This rule of shortening the vowel before two consonants held good even
when in fact only one was pronounced, as in _nullus_ and other words
where a double consonant was written and in Italian pronounced.
Moreover, the parasitic _y_ was treated as a consonant, hence our
'v[)a]cuum'.
In the penultima _qu_ was treated as a single consonant, so that the
vowel was pronounced long in _[=a]quam_, _[=e]quam_, _in[=i]quam_,
_l[=o]quor_. So it was after _o_, hence our 'coll[=o]quial'; but in
earlier syllables than the penultima _qu_ was treated as a double
consonant, hence our 'sub[)a]queous', 'equity', 'iniquity'.
EXCEPTIONS.
1. When the former of the two consonants was _r_ and the latter
another consonant than _r_, as in the series represented by _larva_,
_verbum_, _circus_, _corpus_, _laburnum_, the vowels are a separate
class of long vowels, though not really recognized as such. Of course
our ancestors and the Gradus marked them long because in verse the
vowel with the two consonants makes a long unit.
2. A fully stressed vowel before a mute and _r_, or before _d_
or _pl_, was pronounced long in the penultima. Latin examples are
_labrum_, _Hebrum_, _librum_, _probrum_, _rubrum_, _acrem_, _cedrum_,
_vafrum_, _agrum_, _pigrum_, _aprum_, _veprem_, _patrem_, _citrum_,
_utrum_, _triplus_, _duplex_, _Cyclops_. Moreover, in other syllables
than the penultima the vowel in the same combinations was pronounced
long if the two following vowels had no consonant between them, as
_patria_, _Hadria_, _acrius_. (Our 'triple' comes from _triplum_ and
is a duplicate of '_treble_'. Perhaps the short vowel is due to its
passage through French. Our 'citron' comes from _citronem_, in which
_i_ was short.)
3. The preposition and adverb _post_ was pronounced with a long vowel
both by itself and in composition with verbs, but its adjectives
did not follow suit. Hence we say in English 'p[=o]stpone', but
'p[)o]sterior' and 'p[)o]sthumous'.
Monosyllables ending in a vowel were pronounced long, those ending
in a consonant short. Enclitics like _que_ were no real exception as
they formed part of the preceding word. There were, however, some real
exceptions.
1. Pronouns ending in _-os_, as _hos_, _quos_. These followed _eos_
and _illos_.
2. Words ending in _-es_, as _pes_, _res_.
3. Words ending in _r_, as _par_, _fer_, _vir_, _cor_, _fur_. These
had that form of long vowel which we use in 'part', 'fertile',
'virtue', 'cordate', 'furtive'.
In, disyllables the former vowel or diphthong, if followed by a single
consonant, or by a mute and _r_, or by _cl_ or _pl_, was pronounced
long, a usage which according to Mr. Henry Bradley dates in spoken
Latin from the fourth century. Examples are _apex_, _tenet_, _item_,
_focus_, _pupa_, _Psyche_, _C[ae]sar_, _f[oe]tus_. I believe that
at first the only exceptions were _tibi_, _sibi_, _ibi_, _quibus_,
_tribus_. In later days the imperfect and future of _sum_ became
exceptions. Here perhaps the short vowel arose from the hideous and
wholly erroneous habit, happily never universal though still in some
vogue, of reciting _er['a]m_, _er['a]s_, _er['a]t_. There are actually
schoolbooks which treat the verse _ictus_, the beat of the chanter's
foot, as a word stress and prescribe _terra trib['u]s scopul['i]s_. I
can say of these books only _Pereant ipsi, mutescant scriptores_, and
do not mind using a post-classical word in order to say it.
In disyllables the former vowel or diphthong, if followed immediately
by another vowel or diphthong, had the quality, and if emphatic also
the quality, of a long vowel. The distinction was not recognized, and
seems not to be generally acknowledged even now. We seem not to
have borrowed many words which will illustrate this. We have however
_fiat_, and _pius_ was pronounced exactly as we pronounce 'pious',
while for a diphthong we may quote Shelley,
Mid the mountains Euganean
I stood listening to the paean.
English derivatives will show the long quality of the vowels in _aer_,
_deus_, _coit_, _duo_. To these add _Graius_.
The rule of _apex_ applies also to words of more than two syllables
with long penultima, as _gravamen_, _arena_, _saliva_, _abdomen_,
_acumen_. The rule of _aer_ also holds good though it hardly has
other instances than Greek names, as _Mach['a]on_, _[AE]n['e]as_,
_Thal['i]a_, _Achel['o]us_, _Ach['[ae]]i_.
In words of more than two syllables with short penultima the vowel
in the stressed antepenultima was pronounced short when there was a
consonant between the two last vowels, and _i_ and _y_ were short
even when no consonant stood in that place. Examples are _stamina_,
_Sexagesima_, _minimum_, _modicum_, _tibia_, _Polybius_. But _u_,
_au_, _eu_ were, as usual, exceptions, as _tumulus_, _Aufidus_,
_Eutychus_. I believe that originally men said _C[)[ae]]sarem_, as
they certainly said _c[)[ae]]spitem_ and _C[)[ae]]tulum_, as also
_C[)[ae]]sarea_, but here in familiar words the cases came to follow
the nominative.
Exceptions to the rule were verb forms which had _[=a]v_, _[=e]v_,
_[=i]v_, or _[=o]v_ in the antepenultima, as _am[=a]veram_,
_defieverat_, _audivero_, _moveras_, and like forms from aorists with
the penultima long, as _suaseram_, _egero_, _miserat_, _roseras_, and
their compounds.
This rule was among the first to break down, and about the middle of
the nineteenth century the Westminster Play began to observe the
true quantities in the antepenultimate syllables. Thus in spite of
'cons[)i]deration' boys said _s[=i]dera_, and in spite of 'n[)o]minal'
they said _n[^o]mina_, while they still said _s[)o]litus_ and
_r[)a]pidus_.
On the other hand the following rule, of which borrowed words provide
many examples, still obtains in the Play. In words of more than two
syllables any vowel in the antepenultima other than _i_ or _y_ was
pronounced long if no consonant divided the two following vowels.
Possibly the reason was that there was a syn[ae]resis of the two
vowels, but I doubt this, for a parasitic _y_ was treated as a
consonant. Examples are _alias_, _genius_, _odium_, _junior_,
_an[ae]mia_, and on the other hand _f[)i]lius_, _L[)y]dia_. Compound
verbs with a short prefix were exceptions, as _[)o]beo_, _r[)e]creo_,
whence our 'recreant'. A long prefix remained long as in _d[=e]sino_.
The only other exception that I can remember was _Ph[)o]loe_.
In polysyllables the general rule was that all vowels and diphthongs
before the penultima other than _u_, when it bore a primary or
secondary stress, and _au_ and _eu_ were pronounced short except
where the 'alias' rule or the 'larva' rule applied. Thus we said
_h[)e]r[)e]ditaritis_, _[)[ae]]qu[)a]bilitas_, _imb[)e]cillus_,
_susp[)i]cionem_, but _fid[=u]ciarius_, _m[=e]diocritas_,
_p[=a]rticipare_. I do not know why the popular voice now gives
_[)A]riadne_, for our forefathers said _[=A]riadne_ as they said
_[=a]rea_.
In very long words the alternation of stress and no-stress was
insisted on. I remember a schoolmaster who took his degree at Oxford
in the year 1827 reproving a boy for saying _['A]lphesib['oe]us_
instead of _Alphesib['oe]us_, and I suspect that Wordsworth meant no
inverted stress in
La['o]dam['i]a, that at Jove's command--
nor Landor in
Art['e]mid['o]ra, gods invisible--
though I hope that they did.
* * * * *
It is not to be thought that these rules were in any way arbitrary. So
little was this so that, I believe, they were never even formulated.
If examples with the quantities marked were ever given, they must have
been for the use of foreigners settling in England. English boys did
not want rules, and their teachers could not really have given them.
The teachers did not understand that each vowel represented not two
sounds only, a long and a short, but many more. This fact was no more
understood by John Walker, the actor and lexicographer, who in 1798
published a Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek and Latin
proper names. His general rule was wrong as a general rule, and so far
as it agreed with facts it was useless. He says that when a vowel ends
a syllable it is long, and when it does not it is short. Apart from
the confusion of cause and effect there is the error of identifying
for instance the _e_ in _beatus_ and the _e_ in _habebat_. Moreover,
Walker confounds the _u_ in 'curfew', really long, with the short and
otherwise different _u_ in 'but'. The rule was useless as a guide,
for it did not say whether _moneo_ for instance was to be read as
_ino-neo_ or as _mon-eo_, and therefore whether the _o_ was to be long
or short. Even Walker's list is no exact guide. He gives for instance
_M[=o]-na_, which is right, and _M[=o]-n[ae]ses_, which is not. Now
without going into the difference between long vowels and ordinary
vowels, of which latter some are long in scansion and some short, it
is clear that there is no identity. In fact _Mona_, has the long _o_
of 'moan' and _Mon[ae]ses_ the ordinary _o_ of 'monaster'. A boy at
school was not troubled by these matters. He had only two things to
learn, first the quantity of the penultimate unit, second the fact
that a final vowel was pronounced. When he knew these two things
he gave the Latin word the sounds which it would have if it were
an English word imported from the Latin. Thus he finds the word
_civilitate_. I am not sure that he could find it, but that does not
matter. He would know 'civility', and he learns that the penultima of
the Latin word is long. Therefore he says _c[)i]v[)i]l[)i]t[=a]t[)e]_.
Again he knows '[)i]nf[)i]n[)i]t' (I must be allowed to spell the
word as it is pronounced except in corrupt quires). He finds that
the penultima of _infinitivus_ is long, and he therefore says
_[)i]nf[)i]n[)i]t[=i]v[)u]s_. Again he knows 'irradiate', and
finding that the penultima of _irradiabitur_ is short he says
_[)i]rr[=a]d[)i][)a]b[)i]t[)u]r_. It is true that some of these
verb forms under the influence of their congeners came to have
an exceptional pronunciation. Thus _irradi[=a]bit_ led at last to
_irradi[=a]bitur_, but I doubt whether this occurred before the
nineteenth century. The word _dabitur_, almost naturalized by Luther's
adage of _date et dabitur_, kept its short _a_ down to the time when
it regained it, in a slightly different form, by its Roman right;
and _am[)a]mini_ and _mon[)e]mini_ were unwavering in their use. Old
people said _v[=a]ri[)a]bilis_ long after the true quantities had
asserted themselves, and the word as the specific name of a plant may
be heard even now. Its first syllable of course follows what I shall
call the 'alias' rule. We may still see this rule in other instances.
All men say 'hippop['o]t[)a]mus', and even those who know that this
_a_ is short in Greek can say nothing but 'Mesopot[=a]mia', unless
indeed the word lose its blessed and comforting powers in a disyllabic
abbreviation. When a country was named after Cecil Rhodes, where the
_e_ in the surname is mute, we all called it 'Rhod[=e]sia'. Had it
been named after a Newman, where the _a_ is short or rather obscure,
we should all have called it 'Newm[=a]nia ', while, named after a
Davis, it would certainly have been 'Dav[)i]sia'. The process of
thought would in each case have been unconscious. A new example is
'aviation', whose first vowel has been instinctively lengthened.