apex (diacritic)

Apices are usually thinner than the lines that compose the letters on which they stand. They appear in both epigraphic and palaeographic texts, although they are not always included in transcriptions.

An apex is not used with the letter {{angbr|i}}; instead, the letter is written taller (as a "long i"), as in {{sm|lv́ciꟾ·a·fꟾliꟾ}} (Lūciī a fīliī) in the next illustration.

Other markers of long vowels are attested, such as the reduplication of the vowel and the use of for long /i/ in archaic epigraphy, but the apex was the standard vowel-length indicator in classical times.{{Cite journal |last=Rolfe |first=John C. |date=1922 |title=The Use of Devices for Indicating Vowel Length in Latin |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/984435 |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=80–98 |jstor=984435 }} The grammarian Quintilian wrote that apices are necessary when a difference of quantity in a vowel changes the meaning of a word, as in malus and málus, but recommended against including them otherwise.Inst. 1,7,2s: {{Lang|la|longis syllabis omnibus adponere apicem ineptissimum est, quia plurimae natura ipsa verbi quod scribitur patent, sed 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}}. Translation by Russell (2002) from the Loeb Classical Library: "it would be very silly to put an apex over all long syllables, because the length of most of them is obvious from the nature of the word which is written, but it is sometimes necessary, namely when the same letter produces different senses if it is long and if it is short. Thus, in malus, an apex indicates that it means 'apple tree' and not 'bad man'; palus also means one thing if the first syllable is long and another if the second is long; and when the same letter is found as short in the nominative and as long in the ablative, we commonly need to be reminded which interpretation to choose." Terentius Scaurus had a similar recommendation.Terentius Scaurus, De Orthographia VII,33,5 Long vowels were never indicated consistently; writers most often marked them in grammatical endings, to avoid visual confusion with other letters, and to denote phrasal units.

The apex (used above vowels) is often contrasted with the sicilicus, a rarely-attested ancient Latin diacritic used above consonants to denote that they should be pronounced double. Revilo P. Oliver argues that they are one and the same sign, a mark of gemination which was used over any letter to indicate that the letter should be read twice. The distinction between a sicilicus that was used above consonants and an apex that was applied to vowels is then completely artificial: "There is no example of this mark [the sicilicus] that can be distinguished from an apex by any criterion other than its presence above a letter that is not a long vowel," Oliver writes, and "No ancient source says explicitly that there were two different signs...".

If Oliver is right,{{Original research inline|date=May 2024}} the apex as a sign denoting vowel length would have its origin in the time when long vowels were written double. Then, when long vowels ceased to be regularly written twice, the usage of the sicilicus above vowels evidently remained, even after it fell out of use above consonants, and the apex, as it was now called, was redefined as a sign denoting the phonematic feature of vowel length, rather than as a purely orthographic shorthand. However, Oliver's view that the two marks were identical has been challenged.{{Cite journal |last=Fontaine |first=Michael |date=2006 |title="Sicilicissitat" (Plautus, "Menaechmi" 12) and Early Geminate Writing in Latin (With an Appendix on "Men." 13) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4433712 |journal=Mnemosyne |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=95–110 |doi=10.1163/156852506775455289 |jstor=4433712 |url-access=subscription }}

Inscription displaying apices (from the shrine of the Augustales at Herculaneum).jpg|Inscription displaying very thin apices and long i. Herculaneum, 1st century CE. {{sm|avgvstó · sacr / a · a · lv́ciꟾ · a · fꟾliꟾ · men
procvlvs · et · iv́liánvs
p · s
dédicátióne · decvriónibvs · et
avgvstálibvs · cénam · dedérvnt}}

Scriptura con apices Nimes 1750.jpg|Epitaph displaying apices and long i. Nimes, 1st–2nd century CE. {{sm|C(aivs) · Avrelivs
Parthenivs
órnámentꟾs · dec(vrionalibus)
honórátvs · col(oniae) · aug(ustae)
nemavsꟾ ꟾ{{overline|iiii}}ꟾvir · avg(vstalis)
col(onia) · cópia · clavd(ia) · avg(usta) · lvgvd(vnensis)
item · nárbóne mártio
et · fir(ma) · Iv́l(ia) · secvnd(anorum) · aravsióne
et · foro · ivliꟾ pácáto
vbꟾqve · grátvitꟾs · honóribvs}}

I littera in manuscripto.jpg|Papyrus fragment written in Roman cursive showing apices.
uobis · ujdetur · p · c · decernám(us · ut · etiam)
prólátis · rebus ijs · júdicibus · n(ecessitas · judicandi)
imponátur quj · jntrá rerum (· agendárum · dies)
jncoháta · judicia · non · per(egerint · nec)
defuturas · ignoro · fraudes · m(onstrósa · agentibus)
multas · aduersus · quas · exc(ogitáuimus)...

Pilate_Inscription.JPG|The Pilate stone (1st century AD?), displaying a large apex mark.

• Acute accent
• Latin spelling

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