APEX (DIACRITIC)

The 'apex'^[1] (plural ''apices'') is a mark with the shape of an acute accent ( ´ ) which is placed over vowels to indicate that they are long by nature. Although hardly known by most contemporary Latinists, the use of the sign was actually quite widespread during classical and postclassical times. The reason why it so often passes unnoticed lies probably in its smallish size and usually thinner nature in comparison with the lines that compose the letter on which it stands. Yet the more careful observer will soon start to notice apices in the exhibits of any museum, not only in many of the more formal epigraphic inscriptions, but also in handwritten palæographic documents.

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Other expedients, like a reduplication of the vowels, are attested in archaic epigraphy; but the apex is the standard vowel-length indication that was used in classical times and throughout the most flourishing period of the Roman education system. Its use is recommended by the best grammarians, like Quintilian, who says^[2] that writing the apex is necessary when a difference of quantity in a vowel can produce a different meaning in a word, as in "malus" and "málus" or "liber" and "líber" or "rosa" and "rosá".
Oblivious of the apex, modern Latin spelling has recently started marking long vowels by means of the macron, a sign that had always been used, and still is, to mark metrically long ''syllables'' (more recently, and more accurately, called ''heavy'' syllables). This has created a lot of confusion, and most western dictionaries still fail to describe the actual nature of Latin vowels properly because of this.
The apex is still used to mark long vowels in Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Icelandic or Irish.

Contents

See also

References

See also

★ Latin spelling

★ Acute accent

References

1. Cf. ''OLD'' apex 5a
2. Inst. 1,7,2s: ''adponere apicem ... interim necessarium, cum eadem littera alium atque alium intellectum, prout correpta vel producta est, facit: ut 'malus' arborem significet an hominem non bonum apice distinguitur, 'palus' aliud priore syllaba longa, aliud sequenti significat, et cum eadem littera nominativo casu brevis, ablativo longa est, utrum sequamur plerumque hac nota monendi sumus''.