Page:The New Latin Primer (Postgate).djvu/19

Rh They are produced by pronouncing, the separate vowels which compose them so quickly that they appear to form but one sound.

3. Consonants. To be pronounced as in English, with the following exceptions:—

4. Compound Consonants:—

—The common pronunciation of Latin in England is to pronounce it as if it were English.

§ 9. —Quantity is a word which is applied to vowels and to syllables, and it means the time that they take to pronounce.

Every vowel has a natural quantity of its own. It is either short or long.

Long vowels take twice as long to pronounce as short ones. Thus, in ămā love! (Imperative) we must let our voice dwell twice as long on the second a as on the first and pronounce the vowels as in English aha!

Where a naturally short vowel is followed by two or more consonants, it is often said to be long by position; as in est is, which is of the same length as ī go! In such cases it is more correct to say the syllable is long. The vowel is pronounced just as short as before, but the vowel and the two consonants taken together take up the time of one long vowel.

The rules for the quantity of particular vowels will be given later. But it must be observed here that all