The Latin taught by Pope Gregory's missionaries to their English
converts at the beginning of the seventh century was a living
language. Its pronunciation, in the mouths of educated people when
they spoke carefully, was still practically what it had been in
the first century, with the following important exceptions. 1. The
consonantal _u_ was sounded like the _v_ of modern English, 2. The
_c_ before front vowels (_e_, _i_, _o_, _[ae]_, _[oe]_), and the
combinations _t[)i]_, _c[)i]_ before vowels, were pronounced _ts_. 3.
The _g_ before front vowels had a sound closely resembling that of the
Latin consonantal _i_. 4. The _s_ between vowels was pronounced like
our _s_. 5. The combinations _[ae]_, _[oe]_ were no longer pronounced
as diphthongs, but like the simple _e_. 6. The ancient vowel-quantities
were preserved only in the penultima of polysyllables (where they
determined the stress); in all other positions the original system of
quantities had given place to a new system based mainly on rhythm. Of
this system in detail we have little certain knowledge; but one of
its features was that the vowel which ended the first syllable of
a disyllabic was always long: _p[=a]ter_, _p[=a]trem_, _D[=e]us_,
_p[=i]us_, _[=i]ter_, _[=o]vis_, _h[=u]mus_.
Even so early as the beginning of the fifth century, St. Augustine
tells us that the vowel-quantities, which it was necessary to learn
in order to write verse correctly, were not observed in speech.
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