Kitap 1
4.10
Again the teacher of literature will have to determine whether certain vowels have not been consonantalised. For instance iam and etiam are both spelt with an i, uos and tuos both with a u. Vowels, however, when joined as vowels, either make one long vowel (compare the obsolete method of indicating a long vowel by doubling it as the equivalent of the circumflex), or a diphthong, though some hold that even three vowels can form a single syllable; this however is only possible if one or more assume the role of consonants.
4.11
He will also inquire why it is that there are two vowels which may be repeated, while a consonant can only be followed and modified by a different consonant. The two vowels are i and u. A consonant cannot be duplicated within one syllable. But i can follow i (for coniicit is derived from iacit The derivation is mentioned to show that two i's, not one, are found in the second syllable of coniicit. ): so too does u, witness the modern spelling of seruus and uulgus. He should also know that Cicero preferred to write aiio and Maaiiam with a double i; in that case one of them is consonantalised.
