Roman Pronunciation of Latin , page 9 by Frances E. Lord
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he like, the AE representing a short and very open E: sometimes it stands for a long E, as often in plaenus, the liquid before and after making perhaps the E more open ([Greek:transliteration]skaenae is always scaena): and it is from this form plaenus that in Italian, contrary to the usual law of long Latin E, we have pièno with open E. With such pedigree then, and with the genuine Latin AE always represented in Italian by open E, can we hesitate to pronounce the AE with this open E sound?"
The argument sometimes used, for pronouncing AE like AI, that in the poets we occasionally find AI in the genitive singular of the first declension, appears to have little weight in view of the following explanation:
[Mar. Vict. de Orthog. et de Metr. Rat., I. iii. 38.] AE Syllabam quidam more Graecorum per AI scribunt, nec illud quidem custodient, quia omnes fere, qui de orthographia aliquid scriptum reliquerunt, praecipiunt, nomina femina casu nominativo A finita, numero plurali in AE exire, ut Aeliae: eadem per A et I scripta numerum singularem ostendere, ut hujus Aeliai: inducti a poetis, qui pictai vestis scripserunt: et quia Graeci per I potissimum hanc syllabam scribunt propter exilitatem litterae, [Greek:transliteration]ae autem propter naturalem productionem jungere vocali alteri non possunt: iota vero, quae est brevis eademque longa, aptior ad hanc structuram visa est: quam potestatem apud nos habet et I, quae est longa et brevis. Vos igitur sine controversia ambiguitatis, et pluralem nominativum, et singularem genitivum per AE scribite: nam qui non potest dignoscere supra scriptarum vocum numeros et casum, valde est hebes.
Of OE Munro says:
"When hateful barbarisms like coelum, coena, moestus, are eliminated, OE occurs very rarely in Latin: coepi, poena, moenia, coetus, proelia, besides archaisms coera, <