seemed nearer than ‘pr[=e]sent’ to the French ‘pr[’e]sent’.  The N.E.D. says that ‘gladiator’ comes straight from the Latin ‘gladiatorem’.  Surely in that case it would have had its first vowel long, as in ‘radiator’ and ‘mediator’.  In any case its pronunciation must have been affected by ‘gladiateur’.  The other class of exceptions consists of words deliberately introduced by writers at a late period.  Thus ‘adorable’ began as a penman’s word.  Following ‘in[’e]xorable’ and the like it should have been ‘[’a]dorable’.  Actually it was formed by adding _-able_ to ‘ad[’o]re’, like ‘laughable’.  It is now too stiff in the joints to think of a change, and must continue to figure with the other sins of the Restoration.

Before dealing with the words as classified by their formation, we may make short lists of typical words to show that for the pronunciation of English derivatives it is idle to refer to the classical quantities.

From [=[ae]]:  [)e]difice, [)e]mulate, c[)e]rulean, qu[)e]stion.

From [=oe]:  [)e]conomy, [)e]cumenical, conf[)e]derate.

From [=a],:  don[)a]tive, n[)a]tural, cl[)a]mour, [)a]verse.

From [)a]:  [=a]lien, st[=a]tion, st[=a]ble, [=a]miable.

From [=e]:  [)e]vident, Quadrag[)e]sima, pl[)e]nitude, s[)e]gregate.

From [)e]:  s[=e]ries, s[=e]nile, g[=e]nus, g[=e]nius.

From [=i]:  lasc[)i]vious, erad[)i]cate, d[)i]vidend, f[)i]lial, susp[)i]cion.

From [)i]:  l[=i]bel, m[=i]tre, s[=i]lex.

From [=o]:  [)o]rator, pr[)o]minent, pr[)o]montory, s[)o]litude.

From [)o]:  b[=o]vine, l[=o]cal, f[=o]rum, coll[=o]quial.

From [=u]:  fig[)u]rative, script[)u]ral, sol[)u]ble.

From [)u]:  n[=u]merous, C[=u]pid, all[=u]vial, cer[=u]lean.

The N.E.D. prefers the spelling ‘[oe]cumenical’; but Newman wrote naturally ‘ecumenical’, and so does Dr. J.B.  Bury.  Dublin scholarship has in this matter been markedly correct.

CLASSIFICATION OF WORDS ACCORDING TO THEIR LATIN STEMS.

In classification it seems simplest to take the words according to their Latin stems.  We must, however, first deal with a class of adjectives borrowed bodily from the Latin nominative masculine with the insertion of a meaningless o before the final _-us_.[1] These of course follow the rules given above.  In words of more than two syllables the antepenultimate and stressed vowel is shortened, as ‘[)e]mulous’ from [ae]mulus and in ‘fr[)i]volous’ from fr[=i]volus, except where by the ‘alias’ rule it is long, as in ‘egr[=e]gious’ from egr[)e]gius.  Words coined on this analogy also follow the rules.  Thus ‘glabrous’ and ‘fibrous’ have the vowels long, as in the traditional pronunciation of glabrum and fibrum, where the vowels in classical Latin were short.  The stressed u being always long we have ‘lug[=u]brious’ and ‘sal[=u]brious’, the length being independent of the ‘alias’ rule.  Some words ending in _-ous_ are not of this class.  Thus ‘odorous’ and ‘clamorous’ appear in Italian as odoroso and clamoroso.  Milton has