I myself have no impression of the Anglo-Saxon practice; but it my clear impression that Germans (as well as Scandinavians) go for the complete elision. I have on more than one occasion heard an Oxford professor recite Latin, Vergil as well as Horace, but I really can’t recall his practice … Is it easier to learn complete elision than merging of vowels? Hundreds of singers learn to merge their vowels in Italian every day at music conservatories, and when your scansion over time becomes second nature, it’s even easier, I think, because your eyes don’t have to be two syllables ahead of your voice. I haven’t taught Latin metrics, but when the day comes, I will go for no ictus (to quote Bertil Axelsson: ictus fictus) and synalepha.
I know what you mean, and though it is what I normally do, I won’t take up the challenge this particular minute, what would the other people at the office think of me? The problem is nasalizing in such a minimal interval of time. As I get more and more used to reading verses aloud, it is becoming less of a problem, however, and perhaps one day it will seem as natural to me as it might have Cicero.
In short, I revise my view on the matter and am almost convinced that it is possible to merge a nasalized vowel with an unnasalized one.
Desirable now are examples from modern languages exhibiting the same feature, preferably a Romance language. What about Portuguese?