The letter or symbol a stood for two long sounds, heard in the first syllables of alias and of larva, for the short sound heard in the first syllable of stamina, and for the obscure sound heard in the last syllable of each of these last two words in English.

The letter e stood for the long sounds heard in genus and in verbum, for the short sound heard in item, and for the obscure sound heard in cancer.  When it ended a word it had, if short, the sound of a short i, as in pro lege, rege, grege, as also in unstressed syllables in such words as precentor and regalia.

The letter i stood for the two long sounds heard in minor and in circus and for the short sound heard in premium and incubus.

The letter o stood for the two long sounds heard in odium and in corpus, for the short sound in scrofula, and for the obscure in extempore.

The two long sounds of u are heard in rumor, if that spelling may be allowed, and in the middle syllable of laburnum, the two short sounds in the first u of incubus and in the first u of lustrum, the obscure sound in the final syllables of these two words.  Further the long sound was preceded except after l and r by a parasitic y as in albumen and incubus.  This parasitic y is perhaps not of very long standing.  In some old families the tradition still compels such pronunciations as moosic.

The diphthongs [ae] and [oe] were merely e, while au and eu were sounded as in our August and Euxine.  The two latter diphthongs stood alone in never being shortened even when they were unstressed and followed by two consonants.  Thus men said [=Eu]stolia and [=Au]gustus, while they said [)[AE]]schylus and [)OE]dipus. Dryden and many others usually wrote the [AE] as E.  Thus Garrick in a letter commends an adaptation of ‘Eschylus’, and although Boswell reports him as asking Harris ’Pray, Sir, have you read Potter’s [AE]schylus?’ both the speaker and the reporter called the name Eschylus.

The letter y was treated as i.

The consonants were pronounced as in English words derived from Latin.  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.