![]() In English, the word order distinguished who did what to whom. Dog bites man means something very different than man bites dog. Before we do, however, note one other difference between Latin and English. So now that we have all these good rules, let's take some examples. Today the j's are usually replaced with the more classical i's. Until this last century, most printed Latin texts used the j to indicate the different sounds. "Major" in Latin is pronounced as MAH-yor. It was introduced in the 13th century or thereabouts to differentiate between the vowel i and the consonant i. ![]() TI - when followed by a third vowel becomes a tsee sound, as in tsetse fly These consonants are hard before a, o, u, auĪnd these are soft consonants before ae, e, oe, i: The long A is simply held longer than a short A, Ahhhhhhh versus ah.Ĭonsonants are "hard", but some consonants take a hard form in front of some vowels and a soft form in front of other vowels: The distinction between a short or a long A is how long the vowel is actually pronounced. The differences are mainly the vowels and a few consonants. Since English borrowed its alphabet from Latin, the pronunciation of individual Latin letters is close to that of English. As I said, a good dictionary is most helpful here. For example, peccata is pronounced pec-CAH-ta, since the a in the second syllable is long, but nomine is pronounced NOH-mi-neh, since the i of the second syllable is short. If the second to the last syllable has a short vowel, then the previous syllable (the third syllable from the end). If the second to last syllable has a long vowel in it, then the accent is placed on that syllable. ![]() If the word has three or more syllables, then where the stress is applied depends upon whether the syllable second to the last has a long vowel or not. For example, amo is pronounced as AH-moe, not ah-MOE. If the word has only two syllables, the accent always falls on the first syllable. The rule for where the accent or stress in a Latin word goes is also straight forward. Tuum is pronounced tu-um ( too-um), and not as toom. Peccata is thus pronounced pec-ca-ta and not pec-a-ta. The most common Latin diphthongs are ae, oe, and au.) Unlike English, which has silent letters, in Latin each consonant, vowel and diphthong is pronounced separately. (Diphthongs are double vowels which form one sound. It is recommended that the novice look up unfamiliar words to ensure correct pronunciation.Įvery Latin word has as many syllables as it does vowels or diphthongs. A good Latin dictionary that marks long and short vowels will make life much easier. However, with practice, this too becomes easy over time and a certain intuitive pattern will emerge as one's vocabulary expands. There are no simple clues for the novice as to whether a vowel is long or short. About the only difficulty is the need to distinguish between long and short vowels. rough and through are pronounced very differently!). ![]() In fact Latin is generally easier than English to pronounce since Latin does not have silent letters nor has the peculiar diphthong shifts of English (i.e. Guide to the Pronunciation of Ecclesiastical Latin Indeed if one is familiar with one method, only a little effort is needed to be able to use the other. The two methods are very, very close to one another. The second, and the one this web site is really concerned with, is Ecclesiastical Pronunciation, which is the way Latin has been spoken from somewhere in the 3rd/4th centuries down to present day and is the way Latin is spoken in the Church. The first of these is the Classical Pronunciation, which is the way we think Latin was spoken prior to around the third century or so. Today, there are two main ways of pronouncing Latin. ![]()
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