Accent Marks in Latin

Accent Marks in Latin

Accent marks in Latin are called MACRA (singular form MACRON). This is a Greek word that the Romans adopted into their vocabulary sometime around the end of the Republic. Wikipedia, an online dictionary, defines a macron as from the Greek word, μ α κ ρ ο ς (makros), meaning 'large'. It is a mark placed over a vowel to indicate that a vowel has a long sound. Webster's Dictionary defines macron as the neuter of macros, meaning long.

In the early days of Rome's history, Latin was first a spoken language. If one could write, one would write in Greek, the language of an educated person. As a child learns his native language from hearing it first, so too did the Romans. When they began to write the language there was no need for accent marks since all knew the pronunciation. Indeed there are some strange spellings in Latin that we continue to see today, spellings that one assumes were made due to pronunciation needs. Two such examples are the use of an 'e' rather than an 'i' before 'ris' in passive verbs, huNc rather than huMc in the demonstrative pronoun.

As Rome's influence spread throughout the Mediterranean regions, the people of her conquered or annexed territories wanted to learn her language. Teaching one to write a language and pronounce it properly is aided when one uses some phonetic symbols. It was about the time of Sulla's rule in Rome (138-79 BCE) that examples of some pronunciation aids were being used. Rather than an accent mark, long vowels were indicated by being written as larger than the others such as prīmum being written as primum. Another method thought to be derived from the Oscan language (people who had lived in areas south of Rome), was to double the long vowel so that cēdere might be written as ceedere. This approach seemed to be in use from 170-86 BCE.

It was around the end of the Roman Republic that accent marks (macra) were added to all long vowels except 'i'. By the end of the second century CE (A.D), the 'i' also carried a macron when long.

Today we see a macron on a printed page as a perfectly straight short line over the vowel. It is written with less precision when we write with a pen. Roman scribes most likely did not use a ruler or straight edge when copying texts. Evidence of hand written Latin accent marks resemble a Spanish tilde (õ) or a French circumflex. (ô). It is most likely that the straight macron we see today arrived with the advent of the printing press. It is for this reason that I use the French circumflex on our Latin pages since it is an accent mark that most computers readily recognize.

Romans were able to use the Latin language for centuries without accent marks, why do we use them today. It is very helpful for pronunciation, to recognize certain words such as venit (he comes) vs.vênit (he has come), and, for those who study for the AP Latin exam, to scan poetry. Knowing what vowels are long is very important.

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