466 ON LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 



an uniform system throughout the educated world. Obviously the 

 sounds best suited to such an object (with one exception, that of i) 

 would be those already mentioned as being perhaps the nearest approx- 

 imations to the ancient Latin, t being pronounced like the English c. 

 The consonants and dipthongs present like difficulty; the sounds of 

 the latter being indicated either by the' prevailing sounds in English, 

 or, better still perhaps, by enunciating their component vowels very 

 quickly one after the other. In a system constructed in this way to 

 express the fost element alone, no regard being had to the other two, 

 the syllables would be pronounced in monotones of the same length. 



It has been assumed that the laws of accents as given by the Gram- 

 marians are valid, but there still remains an obstacle in the way of a 

 proper understanding of this element, because the variation in the 

 pitch of the voice in pronouncing differently accented syllables is 

 unknown. If, however, we suppose that it was not materially different 

 from that which takes place in speaking the modern languages, we can, 

 at any rate, mark the presence of the acute accent in words of two or 

 more syllables by accenting the syllable on which it occurs, in the same 

 manner as syllables are accented in English. When, for instance, we 

 place the accent on the iirst syllable of into, over, under, etc., the pitch 

 of the voice is higher than in articulating the unaccented syllables; so 

 also when we pronounce the words arrest, detect, excellent, arbitrary, 

 illicit ; and generally it may be shewn that the voice is higher in 

 pronouncing syllables, accented according to the English method, than 

 it is in the utterance of the unaccented syllables. It is not intended 

 here to assert that elevation of the pitch is the essential element in 

 English accent. Loudness or stress is much more evident, although 

 the nature of its connection with the former it does not seem easy to 

 explain. It is only necessary for the present purpose to establish that 

 in English accent we have an element, though a subordinate one, sub- 

 stantially identical with that which, we are told, was the essential 

 characteristic of accent in Latin. If now, sound and accent being 

 considered as independent elements, syllables be pronounced according 

 to a system embracing only these, they will no longer be uttered in 

 monotones, yet the time of each will be the same ; in other words 

 quantity is still wanting. There are examples in English which are 

 apt to mislead us on this point, inasuiuch as the times of the accented 

 syllables are longer than in the unaccented ones. It will be observed, 

 however, that in such cases, although a change iji time takes place 



