Page:The Making of Latin.djvu/27

Rh we should have to assume that the final -ē of the supposed “amosē” was lost after the -s- had become -r-. But there are a multitude of forms of precisely the same shape in Latin, i.e. forms which end with two long syllables, the last being a long vowel (e.g. amantī, sevērē) which show that a long vowel was preserved, not lost, in such a position. Hence we can say quite certainly that for this reason, even if there were no other, the supposed derivation cannot be the true one. (On the real origin of the Passive see §  311.)

The first result of the recognition of the strictness of Phonetic Laws was to destroy a great number of derivations which had been long taught and of which many still linger in the dictionaries. But the greater knowledge which scientific methods of study have produced, has given us a far larger number of trustworthy derivations than those which it obliged us to discard.

Even the brief summary of the Phonetic Laws of Latin which this Introduction gives will enable us to apply serious tests to any proposed derivation of a Latin word and, generally, to say whether the changes of sound which it would lead us to assume did or did not take place in Latin at the date suggested. And we shall further realise the kind of questions that must be asked and answered before we can be sure of the truth of a proposed derivation in any language. So far as Greek and English are concerned, we shall have to notice a number of their most important Phonetic Laws in the course of our study of Latin.