Chapter 006 Allen and Greenough's Latin Grammar Dickinson College Christopher Francese

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Latin spelling varied somewhat with the changes in the language and was never absolutely settled in all details.

Thus, we find lubet , vortō , as earlier, and libet , vertō , as later forms. Other variations are optumus and optimus , gerundus and gerendus .

The spelling of the first century of our era, known chiefly from inscriptions, is tolerably uniform, and is commonly used in modern editions of the classics.

After v (consonant u ), o was anciently used instead of u ( voltus , servos ), and this spelling was not entirely given up until the middle of the first century of our era.

The older quo became cu in the Augustan period; in the second century of our era the spelling quu established itself in some words:— cum , older quom ; The spelling quum is very late and without authority. equos , ecus , later equus ; sequontur , secuntur , later sequuntur ; similarly exstinguont , exstingunt , later exstinguunt . In most modern editions the spelling quu is adopted, except in cum .

Between consonant i and a preceding a , e , o , or u , an i was developed as a transient sound, thus producing a diphthong ai , ei , etc., before the consonant i . In such cases but one i was written: as, âiō (for † ai-iō ), mâius (for † mai-ius ), pêius (for † pei-ius ).

Similarly in compounds of iaciō but one i was written (as, con-iciō , not con-iiciō ); but the usual pronunciation probably showed consonant i followed by vowel i (see § 11 . e ). Some variations are due to later changes in Latin itself, and these are not now recognized in classical texts.

Unaccented ti and ci , when followed by a vowel, came to be pronounced alike; hence nūntiō was later spelled with a c and diciō with a t. The sound of h was after a time lost and hence this letter was often omitted (as, arēna for harēna ) or mistakenly written (as, hūmor for ūmor ). The diphthong ae early in the time of the Empire acquired the value of long open e (about like English e in there ), and similarly oe after a time became a long close e (about like the English ey in they ); and so both were often confused in spelling with e: as, coena or caena for the correct form cēna .

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