Articles From The Classical Teacher
Sayers
Omission 7
... This last consideration may seem trivial, but you will
not think so if you have had anything to do with the theatre, where
I recently had to spend much time and energy hammering it into the
heads of actors that the English form of Constantinus, or "Constanteenoos",
is Constantine, and not Constanteen. It is maddening to any
sensitive ear to hear the same person in the same production called
alternately Coriolanus, and Coriolahnus, and to find
Virgilia and Valaria going together to meet him, with sporadic variations
of Vairgheelia and Valeria. Generally speaking, also, the "Old"
pronunciation sounds better when introducing a Latin quotation into
an English speech, since it slides in more readily, and does not stand
out so conspicuously from the vowel-texture of its context. ...
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