f languages bear to
the parent speech.

* * * * *

PART I.

* * * * *

SOUNDS, ACCENT, QUANTITY.

* * * * *

THE ALPHABET.

1. The Latin Alphabet is the same as the English, except that the Latin has
no w.

1. K occurs only in _Kalendae_ and a few other words; y and z were
introduced from the Greek about 50 B.C., and occur only in foreign
words--chiefly Greek.

2. With the Romans, who regularly employed only capitals, I served both as
vowel and consonant; so also V. For us, however, it is more convenient to
distinguish the vowel and consonant sounds, and to write i and u for the
former, j and v for the latter. Yet some scholars prefer to employ i and u
in the function of consonants as well as vowels.

CLASSIFICATION OF SOUNDS.

2. 1. The Vowels are a, e, i, o, u, y. The other letters are Consonants.
The Diphthongs are ae, oe, ei, au, eu, ui.

2. Consonants are further subdivided into Mutes, Liquids, Nasals, and
Spirants.

3. The Mutes are p, t, c, k, q; b, d, g; ph, th, ch. Of these,--

a) p, t, c, k, q are voiceless,[4] i.e. sounded _without_ voice or
vibration of the vocal cords.

b) b, d, g are voiced,[5] i.e. sounded _with_ vibration of the vocal
cords.

c) ph, th, ch are aspirates. These are confined almost exclusively to
words derived from the Greek, and were equivalent to p + h, t + h, c + h,
i.e. to the corresponding voiceless mutes with a following breath, as in
Eng. _loop-hole_, _hot-house_, _block-house_.

4. The Mutes admit of classification also as

Labials, p, b, ph.
Dentals (or Linguals), t, d, th.
Gutturals (or Palatals), c, k, q, g, ch.

5. The Liquids are l, r. These sounds were voiced.

6. The Nasals are m, n. These were voiced. Besides its ordinary sound, n,
when followed by a guttural mute also had another sound,--that of ng in
_sing_,--the so-called n _adulterinum_; as,--

anceps, _double_, pronounced angceps.

7. The Spirants (sometimes called Fricatives) are f, s, h. These were
voiceless.

8. The Semivowels are j and v. These were voiced.

9. Double Consonants are x and z. Of these, x was equivalent to cs, while
the equivalence of z is uncertain. See Sec. 3, 3.

10. The following table will indicate the relations of the consonant
sounds:--

VOICELESS. VOICED. ASPIRATES.