The principles of Latin grammar; comprising the ... - Essan.org

—§ 1 LETTERS. 3a consonant. The letters k, y, and 2, are used only in words derived fromthe Greek.11. Note, Anciently, the letter^' seems to have been more nearly allied toa vowel than to a consonant, and was represented by i thus, ,' ejus, pejus, &c.,were written eius, peius* &c; and the,;' thus forming a sort of diphthong withthe preceding vowel, of course made the syllable long; as, ei-vs, pei-us, &c.In like manner, u and v were represented by the same letter, namely, v.MARKS AND CHARACTERS.12.—The marks and charactersused in Latin Grammar, or in writingLatin, are the following :w Placed over a vowel shows it to be short.~ Placed over a vowel shows it to be long.**Placed over a vowel shows it to be short or long." Is called Diceresis, and shows that the vowel over which it is placeddoes not form a diphthong with the preceding vowel, but belongs to a differentsyllable ; as, aer, pronounced a-er.A The circumflex shows that the syllable over which it stands has beencontracted, and is consequently long, as nuntidrunt for nuntiaverunt, dimicdssentfor dimicavissent ; or that the vowel over which it is placed, has itslong open sound ; as, pennd.sThe grave accent is sometimes placed over particles and adverbs, todistinguish them from other words consisting of the same letters ; as, quod,a conjunction, " that," to distinguish it from quod, a relative, " which."'The acute accent is used to mark the accented syllable of a word•tuba, dom'inus.'Apostrophe is written over the place of a vowel cut off from the endof a word ; as, men! for mene.as,PUNCTUATION.13.—The different divisions of a sentence are marked by certainracters called Points.The modern punctuation in Latin is the same as in English. The marksemployed are the Comma Semicolon Colon Period ( , ) ; ( ; ) ; ( : ) ; ( . ) Interrogation( ? ); ; Exclamation ( ). !cha14.—The only mark of punctuation used by the ancients, was a point (.),which denoted pauses of a different length, according as it stood at thetop, the middle, or the bottom of the line—that at the top denoting theshortest, and that at the bottom the longest pause.