Ellis, A: Practical Hints on the Quantitative Pronunciation

Excerpt from Practical Hints on the Quantitative Pronunciation of Latin: For the Use of Classical Teachers and Linguists

Been adopted in various educational establishments in this country; and it is no uncommon occurrence in my classes to find students on their arrival already trained in the new method, with such slight differences (and they are really slight) as the divergence of Opinion on par ticular points makes unavoidable. It would be prema ture at present to express any opinion as to the. Eventual success of this experiment; it can hardly be said as yet to have been adequately tried in schools, or properly seconded in the Universities. At Oxford, when I exam ined viva voce as Classical Moderator in 1872,'i was the only examiner who used the reformed pronunciation, and those who then came before me for examination did not generally seem familiar with it. Even now the old use predominates, and it is to be feared that even those trained by the Syllabus at school, e g., at Shrewsbury, Marlborough, Liverpool College, Christ's Hospital, Dul wich College and the City of London School, are in duced to give it up, or, at least to suppress it, when they proceed to the Universities. On one point there seems to be a very general agreement: wherever it has been introduced, it has been adopted without difficulty by students of all ages, even by the youngest boys, from ten years old upwards. It is obvious that if it is to be really successful, it should be taught alone at present the old pronunciation is allowed to linger on side by side with the new. This would not happen if boys were trained at the outset on the new system, and if it were an under stood thing that no other pronunciation was permitted. But the lamentable ¿uctuation of opinion exhibited by the schoolmasters in their conference of this year is a.

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