_M_ is pronounced as in English, except before _q_, where it has a nasal
sound, and when final.

[Mar. Vict. Keil. v. VI. p. 32.] _M_ impressis invicem labiis mugitum
quendam intra oris specum attractis naribus dabit.

But this 'mooing' sound, in which so many of their words ended, was not
altogether pleasing to the Roman ear. Quintilian exclaims against it:

[Quint, XII. x. 31.] Quid quod pleraque nos illa quasi mugiente littera
cludimus _m_, qua nullum Graece verbum cadit.

The offensive sound was therefore gotten rid of, as far as possible, by
obscuring the M at the end of a word. Priscian. speaks of three sounds
of M,--at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of a word:

[Prisc. Keil. v. II. p. 29.] M obscurum in extremitate dictionum sonat,
ut _templum_, apertum in principio, ut _magnus_; mediocre in mediis, ut
_umbra_.

This 'obscuring' led in verse to the cutting off of the final syllable
in M when the following word began with a vowel,--as Priscian remarks in
the same connection:

Finales dictionis subtrahitur M in metro plerumque, si a vocali incipit
sequens dictio, ut:

"Illum expirantem transfixo pectore flammas."