Egressus quondam dē aquā cancer in rīpā pascēbātur: hunc famēlica vulpes corripuit, cumque illum dēvorāre vellet: cūr igitur, inquit, egō quī fluviātilis essem terrestris fīerī voluit?
SOURCE: This comes from the Latin translation that accompanies Camerarius's edition of the Aesopic corpus; the 1571 edition of Camerariu's Aesop is available at GoogleBooks. This is fable 94 in Camerarius; for other versions, see Perry 116.
READ OUT LOUD. Choose which marked text you prefer to practice with - macrons (above) or accent marks (below) - and read the text out loud until you feel comfortable and confident. Then, try reading the unmarked text at the very bottom. It should be easy for you after practicing with the marked texts. :-)
ACCENT MARKS. Here is the text with accent marks, plus some color-coding for the words of three or more syllables (blue: penultimate stress; red: antepenultimate stress):
Egréssus quondam de aqua cancer in ripa pascebátur: hunc famélica vulpes corrípuit, cumque illum devoráre vellet: cur ígitur, inquit, ego qui fluviátilis essem terréstris fíeri vóluit?
UNMARKED TEXT. Here is the unmarked text - after practicing with the marked text that you prefer, you should not have any trouble with the unmarked text:
Egressus quondam
de aqua
cancer
in ripa pascebatur:
hunc
famelica vulpes corripuit,
cumque illum devorare vellet:
cur igitur, inquit,
ego
qui fluviatilis essem
terrestris fieri voluit?
IMAGE. Here is an illustration from the Medici Aesop, which is online at the New York Public Library website.
