THE USE OF DEVICES FOR INDICATING VOWEL 

 LENGTH IN LATIN. 



By JOHN C. ROLFE, Ph.D. 

 {Read April 20, 1922.) 



The Latin language, like some others, passed through various 

 stages as regards pronunciation and accent. Before the days of 

 Livius Andronicus, as is shown by sundry well-known linguistic phe- 

 nomena, there was a stress accent on the initial syllable of every word, 

 accompanied in the longer words by a secondary accent. In a few 

 instances this early accent has left traces in the literature of the ante- 

 classical period; for example, in the versification of Plautus. In 

 general, however, it had given place to one which fell on the penult 

 or the antepenult, very rarely and for special reasons on the last sylla- 

 ble. The position of this new accent conformed to a simple rule, 

 falling on the penult if that syllable was long; otherwise on the ante- 

 penult. At about the same time greater importance was given to the 

 quantity of vowels and syllables, not only those whose quantity deter- 

 mined the accent, but throughout all words. This careful observance 

 of quantity seems to have been due to Greek influence, which made 

 itself felt first in Roman versification and then in the speech of 

 educated Romans. 



It is well known that the meters used by the Roman poets, except 

 for the occasional survival of the native Saturnian, were borrowed or 

 adapted from those of the Greeks, who based their metrical schemes 

 upon quantity. A dactyl, for instance, consisted of a long syllable 

 followed by two shorts; not, as in English, of a stressed syllable fol- 

 lowed by two without stress. That Latin verse, for some centuries 

 after the time of Livius Andronicus, was based upon quantity is uni- 

 versally recognized. It is also believed by most scholars, whatever 

 their actual practice may be, that there was no " ictus " in the form 

 of a strong stress on the first syllable, for example, of a dactyl or 

 spondee, as in English and as in Latin poetry as it was formerly read, 

 or " scanned," by the English-speaking races. Some scholars, promi- 



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