en only the other day 'cinematograph' made its not wholly
desirable appearance, it made no claim to a long vowel in either of
its two first syllables. Not till it was reasonably shortened into
'c[)i]n[)e]ma' did a Judge from the Bench make a lawless decree for a
long second vowel, and even he left the _i_ short though it is long in
Greek.

Of course with the manner of speech the quantities had to be learnt
separately. The task was not as difficult as some may think. To boys
with a taste for making verses the thumbing of a Gradus (I hope that
no one calls it a Gr[)a]dus) was always a delightful occupation, and
a quantity once learnt was seldom forgotten. It must be admitted that,
as boys were forced to do verses, whether they could or not, there
were always some who could read and yet forget.

Although these usages did not precede but followed the pronunciation
of words already borrowed from Latin, we may use them to classify
the changes of quantity. We shall see that although there are some
exceptions for which it is difficult to give a reason, yet most of
the exceptions fall under two classes. When words came to us through
French, the pronunciation was often affected by the French form of the
word. Thus the adjective 'present' would, if it had come direct from
Latin, have had a long vowel in the first syllable. To an English
ear 'pr[)e]sent' seemed nearer than 'pr[=e]sent' to the French
'pr['e]sent'. The _N.E.D._ says that 'gladiator' comes straight from
the Latin 'gladiatorem'. Surely in that case it would have had its
first vowel long, as in 'radiator' and 'mediator'. In any case its
pronunciation must have been affected by 'gladiateur'. The other class
of exceptions consists of words deliberately introduced by writers
at a late period. Thus 'adorable' began as a penman's word. Following
'in['e]xorable' and the like it should have been '['a]dorable'.
Actually it was formed by adding _-able_ to 'ad['o]re', like
'laughable'. It is now too stiff in the joints to think of a change,
and must continue to figure with the other sins of the Restoration.

Before dealing with the words as classified by their formation, we may
make short lists of typical words to show that for the pronunciation
of English derivatives it is idle to refer to the classical
quantities.

From _[=[ae]]_: [)e]difice, [)e]mulate, c[)e]rulean, qu[)e]stion.

From _[=oe]_: [)e]conomy, [)e]cumenical, conf[)e]derate.

From _[=a]_,: don[)a]tive, n[)a]t