Page:Latin for beginners (1911).djvu/25



The Latin alphabet contains the same letters as the English except that it has no w and no j.

The vowels, as in English, are a, e, i, o, u, y. The other letters are consonants.

I is used both as a vowel and as a consonant. Before a vowel in the same syllable it has the value of a consonant and is called I consonant.


 * Thus in Iū-li-us the first i is a consonant, the second a vowel.

Latin was not pronounced like English. The Romans at the beginning of the Christian era pronounced their language substantially as described below.

The vowels have the following sounds:

5