Page:The New Latin Primer (Postgate).djvu/17

Rh Thus, in poe-nae punishments oe and ae are diphthongs, because we pronounce poe-nae. In poeta poet, on the other hand, oe is not a diphthong, because we pronounce po-eta.

A mark called, a diæresis is sometimes used to show that two vowels do not form a diphthong, e.g. poëta.

§ 5. —It is most important to distinguish between these. Sounds are what we actually utter with our voices and hear with our ears when we are speaking a language. Letters are the signs which we use to represent the sounds when we are writing it down. It often happens that the letters do not represent the sounds exactly. Sometimes different sounds are represented by the same letter, sometimes the same sound is represented by different letters.

§ 6.—The English alphabet was originally taken from the Latin alphabet, and the letters in it had the same sounds as in Latin. But the pronunciation of English has changed so much in course of time that there is very little resemblance between the sounds which the letters have now and those which they had when they were taken from the Latin alphabet. Hence, when we read or speak Latin, we must not think of how the letters are pronounced in English, but give them their proper Latin sounds.

§ 7. —The following were the letters of the Latin alphabet:— Of these K is hardly ever used except in abbreviations, and Y and Z only in words borrowed from the Greek.

The Latin alphabet may be classified as follows:—

I. Letters standing for Vowels: A E O with Y.