Thus _c_ before _e_, _i_, _y_, _[ae]_, and _[oe]_ was _s_, as in
_census_, _circus_, _Cyrus_, _C[ae]sar_, and _c[oe]lestial_, a spelling
not classical and now out of use. Elsewhere _c_ was _k_. Before the
same vowels _g_ was _j_ (d[ezh]), as in _genus_, _gibbus_, _gyrus_.
The sibilant was voiced or voiceless as in English words, the one in
_rosaceus_, the other in _saliva_.
It will be seen that the Latin sounds were throughout frankly
Anglicized. According to Burney a like principle was followed by
Burke when he read French poetry aloud. He read it as though it were
English. Thus on his lips the French word _comment_ was pronounced as
the English word _comment_.
The rule that overrode all others, though it has the exceptions given
below, was that vowels and any other diphthongs than _au_ and _eu_, if
they were followed by two consonants, were pronounced short. Thus _a_
in _magnus_, though long in classical Latin, was pronounced as in our
'magnitude', and _e_ in _census_, in Greek transcription represented
by [Greek: eta], was pronounced short, as it is when borrowed into
English. So were the penultimate vowels in _villa_, _nullus_, _c[ae]spes_.
This rule of shortening the vowel before two consonants held good even
when in fact only one was pronounced, as in _nullus_ and other words
where a double consonant was written and in Italian pronounced.
Moreover, the parasitic _y_ was treated as a consonant, hence our
'v[)a]cuum'.
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