law of long Latin E, we have _pieno_ 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_, _moerus_, etc., where
OE, coming from OI, passed into U. If we must have a simple sound, I