From: Michael J Smith
Message: 21842
Date: 2003-05-14
> > > I'm confused about the pronunciation of some of the Latin________________________________________________________________
> > diphthongs.
> > > I'm told in Wheelock's book that the diphthongs eu and ui are
> > pronounced
> > > as Latin e + u and u + i respectively.
>
> Hi Michael - your posting hasn't appeared in my email yet, but
> "aquila-grande's" reply has!
> The sequences to which you refer have several pronunciations,
> depending on
> the context. Sometimes they are diphthongs, and sometimes they are
> not!
> (a) -ui- is in most cases consonant + vowel, which may be long or
> short.
> Can be written -vi-.
> (b) -ui- is a diphthong in cui, huic. Evidence: scans as one
> long
> syllable; vowels elide before huic; cui has one initial consonant
> in
> scansion and in words like alicui.
> (c) -ui- in huius, cuius is vowel short -u- + double consonant
> -jj-,
> written single as always.
> (d) -ui- in qui quibus etc is of course really [sign of
> labialisation of
> k] + i
>
> (e) -eu- occurs in very few native Latin words (only: neu, ceu,
> seu, heu,
> heus). It is also found as a result of contraction in ne-uter to
> neuter,
> and in Greek words. It was pronounced as a short -e- plus short
> -u/w-. In
> Greek words, when followed by another vowel, it as pronounced as
> -eww-.
> (short e plus double consonant).
>
> Peter
>
>
>
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