Society for Pure English Tract 4 | Page 5

fur. These had that form of long vowel which we use in 'part', 'fertile', 'virtue', 'cordate', 'furtive'.
In, disyllables the former vowel or diphthong, if followed by a single consonant, or by a mute and _r_, or by cl or _pl_, was pronounced long, a usage which according to Mr. Henry Bradley dates in spoken Latin from the fourth century. Examples are _apex_, _tenet_, _item_, _focus_, _pupa_, _Psyche_, _C?sar_, foetus. I believe that at first the only exceptions were _tibi_, _sibi_, _ibi_, _quibus_, tribus. In later days the imperfect and future of sum became exceptions. Here perhaps the short vowel arose from the hideous and wholly erroneous habit, happily never universal though still in some vogue, of reciting _erám_, _erás_, _erát_. There are actually schoolbooks which treat the verse _ictus_, the beat of the chanter's foot, as a word stress and prescribe _terra tribús scopulís_. I can say of these books only _Pereant ipsi, mutescant scriptores_, and do not mind using a post-classical word in order to say it.
In disyllables the former vowel or diphthong, if followed immediately by another vowel or diphthong, had the quality, and if emphatic also the quality, of a long vowel. The distinction was not recognized, and seems not to be generally acknowledged even now. We seem not to have borrowed many words which will illustrate this. We have however _fiat_, and pius was pronounced exactly as we pronounce 'pious', while for a diphthong we may quote Shelley,
Mid the mountains Euganean I stood listening to the paean.
English derivatives will show the long quality of the vowels in _aer_, _deus_, _coit_, duo. To these add Graius.
The rule of apex applies also to words of more than two syllables with long penultima, as _gravamen_, _arena_, _saliva_, _abdomen_, acumen. The rule of aer also holds good though it hardly has other instances than Greek names, as _Macháon_, _?néas_, _Thalía_, _Achelóus_, _Ach['?]i_.
In words of more than two syllables with short penultima the vowel in the stressed antepenultima was pronounced short when there was a consonant between the two last vowels, and i and y were short even when no consonant stood in that place. Examples are _stamina_, _Sexagesima_, _minimum_, _modicum_, _tibia_, Polybius. But _u_, _au_, eu were, as usual, exceptions, as _tumulus_, _Aufidus_, Eutychus. I believe that originally men said _C[)?]sarem_, as they certainly said _c[)?]spitem_ and _C[)?]tulum_, as also _C[)?]sarea_, but here in familiar words the cases came to follow the nominative.
Exceptions to the rule were verb forms which had _[=a]v_, _[=e]v_, _[=i]v_, or _[=o]v_ in the antepenultima, as _am[=a]veram_, _defieverat_, _audivero_, _moveras_, and like forms from aorists with the penultima long, as _suaseram_, _egero_, _miserat_, _roseras_, and their compounds.
This rule was among the first to break down, and about the middle of the nineteenth century the Westminster Play began to observe the true quantities in the antepenultimate syllables. Thus in spite of 'cons[)i]deration' boys said _s[=i]dera_, and in spite of 'n[)o]minal' they said _n?mina_, while they still said _s[)o]litus_ and _r[)a]pidus_.
On the other hand the following rule, of which borrowed words provide many examples, still obtains in the Play. In words of more than two syllables any vowel in the antepenultima other than i or y was pronounced long if no consonant divided the two following vowels. Possibly the reason was that there was a syn?resis of the two vowels, but I doubt this, for a parasitic y was treated as a consonant. Examples are _alias_, _genius_, _odium_, _junior_, _an?mia_, and on the other hand _f[)i]lius_, _L[)y]dia_. Compound verbs with a short prefix were exceptions, as _[)o]beo_, _r[)e]creo_, whence our 'recreant'. A long prefix remained long as in _d[=e]sino_. The only other exception that I can remember was _Ph[)o]loe_.
In polysyllables the general rule was that all vowels and diphthongs before the penultima other than _u_, when it bore a primary or secondary stress, and au and eu were pronounced short except where the 'alias' rule or the 'larva' rule applied. Thus we said _h[)e]r[)e]ditaritis_, _[)?]qu[)a]bilitas_, _imb[)e]cillus_, _susp[)i]cionem_, but _fid[=u]ciarius_, _m[=e]diocritas_, _p[=a]rticipare_. I do not know why the popular voice now gives _[)A]riadne_, for our forefathers said _[=A]riadne_ as they said _[=a]rea_.
In very long words the alternation of stress and no-stress was insisted on. I remember a schoolmaster who took his degree at Oxford in the year 1827 reproving a boy for saying _álphesib['oe]us_ instead of _Alphesib['oe]us_, and I suspect that Wordsworth meant no inverted stress in
Laódamía, that at Jove's command--
nor Landor in
Artémidóra, gods invisible--
though I hope that they did.
* * * * *
It is not to be thought that these rules were in any way arbitrary. So little was this so that, I believe, they were never even formulated. If examples with the quantities marked were ever given, they must have been for the use of foreigners settling in England. English boys did not want rules, and their