APPENDIX IV DIVISION OF LATIN WORDS
Reading edition
The general rules are practically Priscian’s. They are well summarized in Gildersleeve’s Latin Grammar.
1. ‘In dividing a word into syllables, a consonant between two vowels belongs to the second: a-mo, li-xa.
2. ‘Any combination of consonants that can begin a word (including mn, under Greek influence) belongs to the following vowel; in other combinations the first consonant belongs to the preceding vowel: a-sper, fau-stus, li-bri, a-mnis.
3. ‘The combinations incapable of beginning a word are (a) doubled consonants: sic-cus; (b) a liquid and a consonant: al-mus, am-bo, an-guis, ar-bor.
4. ‘Compounds are treated by the best grammarians as if their parts were separate words: ab-igo, res-publica.’
To take a page of Cicero:
con-sequi so-lent ex-ponimus a-criter cri-mi-no-se diligen-ter a-gi re-rum conse-quentium miseri-cor-dia com-movebitur au-di-to-ris a-ni-mus osten-demus com-modis cu-ius cu-i quo-rum qui-bus-que (not qui-bu-sque) us-que (because the parts are separate) ca-ptabimus pote-statem sub-i-ci-e-mus pa-renti-bus neces-sariis cle-men-tia.
Again:
eius-modi, cuius-modi, huius-modi (not eiu-smodi, &c.) con-iun-ctim (I should suppose, not con-iunc-tim) am-plifica-stis e-stis vetu-stas hone-stus onu-stus sus-cipere sub-trahit ad-trahit in-struit circu-it simul-tate re-ce-den-dum di-co di-xi-sti di-xe-rat di-ctum a-ctum au-ctus ma-gnus i-gnis mali-gnus pi-gnus li-gna pec-catum demon-stra-stis (I am rather doubtful about this) ma-gis ma-xime dif-fi-cul-tas la-brum la-mna lar-gus lon-ge di-gnus sum-pserim su-mo sum-mus su-prema propter-ea, and probably pro-pter-ea (but again I am in some doubt) dis-tin-ctus dis-tin-guo ad-spectus a-spectus tem-ptavit il-lu-stris. Most of these are already adopted in editions of authority, e.g. Nobbe’s Cicero, Haase’s Seneca.
Robinson Ellis.
