Alphabet and Pronunciation
Table of contents
Alphabet and pronounciation
Latin is a historical language. Although it has never been lost, and has been used continuously for thousands of years, it has survived as a language we must learn as a second language: for many centuries, there have been no native speakers of Latin. In different parts of the world today, scholars use different conventions for pronouncing Latin. Italians pronounce Latin like Italian, Germans pronounce Latin like German, and the British pronounciation of Latin is hard even to describe.
Americans generally adopt a pronouncation (presented here) that reflects our knowledge of how individual letters and combinations of letter were pronounced, but we should not imagine that we can accurately reproduce the accent of a speaker of classical Latin.
The classical Latin alphabet: a quick guide
Our alphabet derives directly from the classical Latin alphabet, and has the same letters in the same order, except that classical Latin did not have J, V or W. Instead the letters I and U were used to write both pure vowel sounds and a semi-vowel or consonant. In addition, in the classical period, K, Y and Z were used only to spell words borrowed from Greek.
Consonant sounds
Consonants were mostly pronounced as in modern English, with the following notes:
- C and G are always “hard” (like “cut” and “go”, never like “cease” or “gyrate”).
- S is always unvoiced (like “cease”), never a z-sound (like “ease”)
- when I spelled a consonant sound, it was pronounced like English “y”
- when U spelled a consonant sound, it was pronounced like English “w”
- the double consonant PH came to be pronounced like F
Vowels
The five vowels a, e, i, o and u have “pure” sounds, without any glide, any approximately:
| Vowel | English example of sound | Latin word to practice |
|---|---|---|
| A | aha | mater, “mother” |
| E | deck | terra, “earth” |
| I | see | hic, “he, this person” |
| O | no | homo, “person, human being” |
| U | do | factum, “deed, accomplishment” |
Vowels could be long or short; as in a modern language like German, the long version of the vowel was literally held for a longer time than the short version.
Two vowels together could be pronounced as a single diphthong: these originally sounded like the two vowels pronounced successively but blending the first into the second.
Try pronouncing the following diphthongs in these Latin words, taken from Hyginus Fabulae:
| Diphthong | Latin word |
|---|---|
| ae | quaero, “I seek” |
| au | autem, “however” |
| ei | Deianira, a wife of Hercules |
| eu | Theseus, an Athenian hero |
| oe | poena, “penalty, punishment” |
| ui | fluit, “it flows” |
Orthography
Like the inscriptions and papyri surviving from the classical period, many Latin manuscripts and printed editions of Latin texts use only I and U. Others use I for both vocalic and consontal sounds, but distinguish U and V. Still others use I, J, U and V. Long and short vowels were not distinguished in writing.
In this text book, when we introduce forms and new vocabulary, we will sometimes include long and short marks on vowels, but when we cite passages of Hyginus, we will normally write vowels without quantity mark, and will use only I and U (not J and V) .
Syllables and accent
Syllables and their quantity
Latin words have as many syllables as there are vowels or diphthongs: Her-cu-les poe-na, quae-ro.
A syllable is long if:
- it has a long vowel or a diphthong, (e.g., the first syllable of Rō-ma is long)
- or a short vowel is followed by a cluster of two consonants, (e.g, the first syllable of Her-cu-les is long because the e is followed by two consonants, rc)
- except that the cluster is short if the cluster is l or r following one of : b, d, g, p, t, c, or the combination ph (e.g., the first syllable of pă-tris is short because the cluster after a short vowel is t followed by r).
Other syllables with short vowels are short (e.g., the second syllable of Her-cŭ-les is short).
Accent
Every Latin word with more than one syllable had a stress accent on either the next to last syllable (sometimes called the penult), or the one before it (the antepenult). The placement of the accent depends on whether the next to last syllable is long or short. If the penult is long, then it is accented; otherwise, the syllable before it is accented. This rule is called the Law of the Penultimate. Examples:
- a-mī-cus, “friend,” has a long penult: pronounce it amícus.
- Her-cŭ-les has a short penult: pronounce it Hércules
If a word has only two syllables, the penult is accented no matter what:
- pronounce căp-ŭt, “head” as cáput.