Roman Pronunciation of Latin | Page 6

geminum sonum reddat, hic et hoc.
And he adds that you do not get that more emphatic sound in, for instance, the conjunction nec.
Si autem nec conjunctionem aspiciamus, licet eadem littera finitam, diversum tamen sonabit.
And again:
Ut dixi, in pronominibus C littera sonum efficit crassiorem.
Pompeius, commenting upon certain vices of speech, says that some persons bring out the final C in certain words too heavily, pronouncing sic ludit as sic cludit; while others, on the contrary, touch it so lightly that when the following word begins with C you hear but a single C:
[Keil. v. V. p. 394.] Item litteram C quidam in quibusdam dictionibus non latine ecferunt, sed ita crasse, ut non discernas quid dicant: ut puta siquis dicat sic ludit, ita hoc loquitur ut putes eum in secunda parte orationis cludere dixisse, non ludere: et item si contra dicat illud contrarium putabis. Alii contra ita subtiliter hoc ecferunt, ut cum duo C habeant, desinentis prioris partis orationis et incipientis alterius, sic loquantur quasi uno C utrumque explicent, ut dicunt multi sic custodit.
D, in general, is pronounced as in English, except that the tongue should touch the teeth rather than the palate.
[Pompei. Comm. ad Donat. Keil. v. VI. p. 32.] D autem et T quibus, ut ita dixerim, vocis vicinitas quaedam est, linguae sublatione ac positione distinguuntur. Nam cum summos atque imos conjunctim dentes suprema sui parte pulsaverit D litteram exprimit. Quotiens autem sublimata partem, qua superis dentibus est origo, contigerit T sonare vocis explicabit.
But when certain words in common use ending in D were followed by words beginning with a consonant, the sound of the D was sharpened to T; and indeed the word was often, especially by the earlier writers, written with T, as, for instance, set, haut, aput:
[Mar. Vict. I. iii. 50.] D tamen litteram conservat si sequens verbum incipiat a vocali; ut haud aliter muros; et haud equidem. At cum verbum a consonante incipit, D perdit, ut haut dudum, et _haut multum, et haut placitura refert_, et inducit T.
F is pronounced as in English except that it should be brought out more forcibly, with more breath.
[Keil. v. VI. p. 32.] F litteram imum labium superis imprimentibus dentibus, reflexa ad palati fastigium lingua, leni spiramine proferemus.
Marius Victorinus says that F was used in Latin words as PH in foreign.
Diomedes (of the fourth century) says the same:
[Diom. Keil. v. I. p. 427.] Id hoc scire debemus quod F littera tum scribitur cum Latina dictio scribitur, ut felix. Nam si peregrina fuerit, P et H scribimus, ut Phoebus, Phaethon.
And Priscian makes a similar statement:
[Prise. Keil. v. I. p. 35.] F multis modis muta magis ostenditur, cum pro P et aspiratione, quae similiter muta est, accipitur.
From the following words of Quintilian we may judge the breathing to have been quite pronounced:
[Quint. XII. x. 29.] Nam et illa quae est sexta nostrarum, paene non humana voce, vel omnino non voce, potius inter discrimina dentium efflanda est, quae etiam cum vocalem proxima accipit quassa quodammodo, utique quotiens aliquam consonantem frangit, ut in hoc ipso frangit, multo fit horridior.
G, no less than C, appears to have had but one sound, the hard; as in the English word get.
[Mar. Vict. Keil. v. VI. p. 32.] C etiam et G, ut supra scriptae, sono proximae, oris molimine nisuque dissentiunt. Nam C reducta introrsum lingua, hinc atque hinc molares urgens, haerentem intra os sonum vocis excludit: G vim prioris, pari linguae habitu palato suggerens, lenius reddit.
Diomedes speaks of G as a new consonant, whose place had earlier been filled by C:
[Keil. v. I. p. 423.] G nova est consonans, in cujus locum C solebat adponi, sicut hodieque cum Gaium notamus Caesarem, scribimus C. C., ideoque etiam post B litteram, id est tertio loco, digesta est, ut apud Graecos [Greek:transliterated] g posita reperitur in eo loco.
Victorinus thus refers to the old custom still in use of writing C and CN, as initials, in certain names, even where the names were pronounced as with G.
[Mar. Vict. I. iii. 98.] C autem et nomen habuisse G et usum praestitisse, quod nunc Caius per C, et Cneius per CN, quamvis utrimque syllabae sonus G exprimat, scribuntur.
H has the same sound as in English. The grammarians never regarded it as a consonant,--at least in more than name,--but merely as representing the rough breathing of the Greeks.
Victorinus thus speaks of its nature:
[Keil. v. VI. p. 32.] H quoque inter litteras obviam grammatici tradiderunt, eamque adspirationis notam cunctis vocalibus praefici; ipsi autem consonantes tantum quattuor praeponi, quotiens graecis nominibus latina forma est, persuaserunt, id est C, P, R, T; ut chori, Phyllis, rhombos, thymos; quae profundo spiritu, anhelis faucibus, exploso ore, fundetur.
By the best authorities H was looked upon as a mere mark of aspiration. Victorinus says that Nigidius Figulus so regarded it:
[Mar. Vict. I. iv. 5.] Idem (N. F.) H non esse litteram,