PREPARATIONS
Note to the Teacher on the Pronunciation of Words. If the last syllable but one of a word of more than two syllables is long, it is also accented: if short, the accent is thrown back on to the last syllable but two. But words of only two syllables are always accented on the first of the two.
Syllables closed by two or more consonants are mostly long, as in vīLLa, luSCinia, iNTeRDum, paRTem, uMBRa, feneSTRa; so too are syllables containing a double vowel, as in nAUtAE. But many syllables ending in a single consonant and containing a single vowel are also long, because the vowel is itself a long vowel: these vowels are marked in the text and vocabularies of this book. Thus beata and antiqua have the middle syllable long, and are therefore marked beāta, antīqua: and it is because the middle syllable in each of these words has a long vowel in it that it is accented (beáta, antíqua). Vowels which do not bear any mark may be regarded as short, as in domina, amita, casa, quoque, mea, tua (accented dómina, ámita, cása, quóque, méa, túa).
In the Drill Exercises and Appendices (pp. 101-144) the quantities of the long vowels are not marked, except for some special reason (e.g. in order to distinguish the ablative singular of the 1st declension from the nominative singular). These pages will provide an opportunity of testing how far the ear of the pupil has been trained by the study of the text.
