T E R 



226 



T E R 



M, in fort, all who have dealt with the Mibject. except 

 hiaurlf. are aware that the poet has at least three forma of 

 MM which end trochaically : and his second exception i 

 di>po*ed of by the more corn 



In England again, > late tu nve a 



i :ian meti , whi. !.:.-, :,.r . ... :, - 

 of those metre*, the trimeter-iambic, gives us the follow- 

 ing scale : 



with the additional remarks that ijun quid hunc may be a 

 dartvl. that Air auidem etl, ttudrt f.nr, and the thiee first 

 syllables of roluptati, may pass for anapests, &c. &c. 

 All tin-. U exceedingly unsatisfactory, and it would be 

 better to abandon the problem as insoluble, than to give 

 currency to extravagancies which would enable us i 

 in any Jivi-n chapter of Csar a series of trimeter-iambics. 

 mst be admitted that the metres of tlie Greek drama- 

 tist*, and more particularly of the tragedians, irratii'y lin- 

 ear itl> rhythms which, comparator iy ^peaking, are 

 smooth and appreciable. But it should be recollect t-d. in 

 the first place, that the Greek language is distimruishcd 

 from among other languages by its abundance of words 

 which end in a short syllable, and the advantage to the 

 poet is increased by the large number of instances where 

 these short final syllables have a vowel ending. Compare, 

 for instance, the accusatives angular ftowav, lov\ov, rokiv, 

 laiftova. with the Latin mutant, terrain, nuriiii, / 

 the nominative and accusative plural a</u>tc, laipovat, 

 with the Latin leonct ; the numerals lira, lua, with the 

 Latin trptrm, deeem ; the verbs rturrtre, run-own, with tin- 

 Latin tcribitit, tcribitnl ; the ])ronouns fu, at. i, with me, 

 ft, tc. In fact, the Latin language exceeds the Greek 

 1:1 the number of long syllables, as much as the English 

 and German languages exceed the Latin. 



A still more important matter is the question whether and 

 how far the written language of the Romans is an exact re- 

 presentative of the spoken language. It seems to be a con- 

 dition of language in ceneiu! that its pronunciation should 

 always be passing through a series of changes, and that 

 those changes should consist for the most part in the gradual 

 omission of letters and even syllables. Thus the Roman 

 phrase mea domina is in Italian madonna ; in French 

 madam/' ; in English madam, ma'am, and even mum and 

 mint. Meanwhile, for the most part, the changes in ortho- 

 graphy are slow, and consequently t ys in arrear 

 of the orthoepy. Thus it will be found that the sounds of 

 English and German words which appear to the i 

 weighed down with consonants. arc in the mouth of a 

 native tolerably harmonious. Was such the ease with the 

 Roman also? We answer with little hesitation in the 

 affirmative, partly because the laws which i: 

 language can scarcely have been wanting in antient Italy, 

 and partly because we find the point cveral 

 incidental remark* in Latin writers. lomi 



the laws and principle! of wr 

 nan* he was not very obser 

 follow the opinion of those wl 

 as we speak. For as t 



Thus Suetonius says, 

 Orthography that is, 

 laid down by gramma- 

 of, but seems rather to 

 >ld that we should write 

 ngine or omitting 



not !: , li-ttrrs, hut even whole syllables, that i.- 



a common error.' It should he observed too, th;, 

 toniui had himself teen the handwriting of the emperor. 

 (Ibid.,c.S7. Acnin.giiintilian !///>/ says, 'As, 



on the one hand, it is essential that 1 should he 



clearly articulated ; so, on the other hand, to reckon 

 we may so speak, every separate letter, is painful mid 

 wearisome.' In the same chapter he further obsi 



>nly is a coalition of vowel* moo, but 



the consonants are disguiv ....hen a 



vowel follows;' where he must refer tosomc other letter than 



.probably the final t generally and the fiunl <l uf neuter 

 pwoouru. cian, who by th( .an to 



* v wn :ie Latin language had ceased tn |-e 



rn as a lying tongue, at times throws out such con- 



cturn a* the following : I think that vigil, i-igilii, 



should rather be pronounced per tyncopam.' \Ve might 

 appeal to Cicero's authority for the fact Unit a final t was 

 licqnently omitted in pronunciation. Hut then- :uv (-till 

 other arguir -'port of the pn 



are contending. Within tt age 



itself we find such changes actually in progress as, 



. ruti, ijitui, neifiie, ii/i/tir, tire, <-. i /<; 

 runt, provident, mihi, nihil, quibuf, j>'ij nln\. 

 opera, potette, marolo, inn 

 severally mage, HI, ipte, nee, ac, ten, <//. 

 prudent, mi, nil, quit, poplus (compare also poplirut\ leg- 

 men, opra, fxute, inalo, nnril, noxti, dfis or 



.Id enable us to carry the )i I nut to:: 

 and this still more it' we employed the ana: 

 of the Greek tongue. 



Again, tin- lai: :ch are acknowledged to h 



rived from the Latin, siu-1. Mr Trouhadnu. 



Italian, French, Spanish. Port utrucsc.and one portion of the 

 Knirh-h. by their shortened forms, confirm our vi. 

 tins will be found to be specially the case with t 

 To those who may express their surprise that the 1". 

 should thus take precedence in our argument ot'tbe 1 . 

 the answer is, that the French is probab ' irom 



the Latin more completely than even the Italian. For 

 the Celtic, Teutonic, and Iberic languages spoken in 

 France before the Roman conquest uf i! 

 of too foreign a character to mix with the la 

 conquerors or to supply the place of it in the i 

 of the provincials with their masters; whereas in 

 then- already existed dialects which were intelligible to 

 those who came from Rome, and for that v 

 not supplanted by that particular form of the Italian lan- 

 guage which happened to prevail in the metropolitan city. 

 In the same way the authorised dialect of our own t 

 is more likely to become the current language > 

 than of Yorkshire. Add to this that th> 

 called Italian belongs to Tuscany, not to K. 



Lastly, we find much to strengthen our present arri 

 in the abbreviated forms oi writing which were in use among 

 the Romans and are Mill found in manuscripts. Tin 

 word ro*/is written ro,v, because the // was not proii" 

 before *, as Diomedi : Putsch. 



Airain, the v.ord inodo not unl'ix-ijuently occupies such a 

 position in the verses of Terence as to seem to ret, 

 monosyllabic pronunciation, such indeed 

 more consistent with its enclitic character. Thin M/V 

 word enters into the composition of the Latin qw 

 which again in the languages derived from Latin a.- 

 various forms: in the Romance, row; in Spanish, c 

 in Italian, come; and in French, comme. To this v. . 

 add the fact that the Romans themselves represented the 

 simple v.ord by the abbreviation mo. Airain, n N the 

 manuscript mode of denoting the conjunction fnim, i< 

 which must often be pronounced like en to fulfil the con- 

 ditions of Terence's metre. We may .-. ord, 

 as of mode, that an enclitic should not attract the attention 

 of the ear. A third example shall be a third enclitic, viz. 

 i/uiifi'/H. Hentley himself observed the ti d by 

 this word in the verses of Terence (Amir., i.:i. (>i. a 

 remedy is to drop the final m, which howe\er still leaves 

 the \erse encumbered with a superabundance o! s\l! 

 We contend tliat this also is commonly a moimsv ; 

 and on the following grounds. First, the untie i>t'T, 

 requires it. Secondly, if Vftitt'm has a reduced form 

 analogy will gi\ :n. Thirdly, the lio- 

 mans, [ike the French, did not pronounce IhcMiwcl < 

 i/lothetv. ise such u oids, t/(y<; for instance,w-ouldha\ clmd the 

 i liable long), and they also disguised the final in. $-, 

 Quintilian implies in the passage to which wr have already 

 I'hus we have arrived at a sound he. Now tin- 

 language hasawoul of precisely the same | 

 and character, yi, which we strongly suspect to I- 

 sune woid; so that it' our 

 <vuy( are of one origin, as well . 

 tliere are reasons still remaining which da 

 syllabic pronunciation for f/ni</<ni. A\ . ailed 

 it an encliti'-, ;::id it appeals hey ond dispute in that cha- 

 racter in the winds iiji' 



itic should in il '!! to iri\' 



to the. word which precedes it. Yet if we believe the 

 ordinary teachers of Latin prosody, i-i/niilim, though a cor- 

 ruption from efoqjtiil .iiiilrm, has the first sylla- 

 ble short. Again, quando by itself has the final o common 



