4. Probably lack of time will prevent your securing during the first year more than the correct pronunciation of the individual words in a sentence. If you have the opportunity, however, and wish to train your pupils more thoroughly, the following suggestions are offered which will lead to musical, fluent, and effective reading.
a. When a vowel at the end of a word is followed by a word beginning with a vowel or h, the final vowel is only slightly sounded and is run on to the next vowel. Compare English the all-important day has come. Thus, atque alia, atque haec.[1]
If the two vowels are the same they sound like one vowel only: Galba arat like Galbarat.
b. So, too, final m before an initial vowel or h is sounded feebly or not at all, and the two vowels are run together as described above. Thus, tubam auream is pronounced tuba(m) auream, omnem hominem as omne(m) hominem.[1]
c. The words es, you are, and est, he (she, it) is, lose their vowel when preceded by a word ending in a vowel or m. Compare English you're, he's, she's, it's, mum's the word. Thus, tū es, ille est, meum est, are pronounced tūs, illest, meumst (sound the second m feebly or not at all).
MARKING OF QUANTITIES
5. For the past few years it has been customary to print Latin textbooks with marked quantities, to assist the pupil in giving the correct pronunciation. Pupils have sometimes been required to mark all the long quantities in their written work. This, in my judgment, is a mistake, especially in the first year, when so many vital matters of far more relative importance are demanding attention. For the beginner the quantity of the penult and that of the ultima are of more importance than the quantity of the other syllables, — the former because it determines the word accent, the latter because it often differentiates
