I tried to look for some metrical evidence but found none (all the examples I found would work both ways). nōn docēre) where a pronunciation with a diphthong is considered either to be wrong or non-standard/colloquial exactly for this reason: that we understand it as a removable prefix, not as a solid part). They are meant as illustrations of what a close reading of Virgils poetry can unearth and as encouragement to subject the verses from Aeneid 4 to similar. (This is what we do in my language where both two consecutive monophthongs e+u and a diphthong eu exist, whenever there is a negation prefix: učit vs. Learning the proper metrical structure of a. inferretque deos Latio genus unde Latinum. Hexameter is the standard pattern of long and short syllables used by the Romans and Greeks for writing epic poetry. vi superum, saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram, multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem 5. litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto.
![the aeneid scansion the aeneid scansion](https://carden.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/0764-Story-of-the-Aeneid-CoverWP1920-copy-1187x1536.png)
![the aeneid scansion the aeneid scansion](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Vy-vVIuy7iw/maxresdefault.jpg)
the final short syllable in the line must be read and scanned as if it were a long.
![the aeneid scansion the aeneid scansion](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51wOu9SkqFL._SY445_QL70_ML2_.jpg)
Click to expand.I wonder, is there some metrical or other evidence that the word neuter (and its forms) were pronounced with a diphthong? I know that the dictionaries don't use any diacritical signs with this word - which implies a diphthong and that there is also the lone word neu where we're sure it contains a diphthong (and therefore by extrapolation even neuter,a,um should behave that way) but I always thought that Romans would see this word just as a mere prefix + uter, a negation of existing and frequent uter,a,um (which it is) and therefore would continue pronouncing the ne prefix as if no vowel followed. Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris. Aeneid 1.617), this foot is almost always a dactyl (only 1 of 409.5.