Latin Pronunciation Alphabet

The Roman alphabet was like the English alphabet except that it lacked the letters j and w, and the letter v originally represented both the vowel u and the sound of the English consonant w. The Roman names for the letters are generally similar to ours:

A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z

ī ā bē kē dē ē ef gē hā ī kā el em en ō pē qū er es tē ū ex zēta Graeca

NOTĀ BENE:

 The letter V originally stood for both the sounds of the vowel U and the consonant V. The rounded u-form appeared in the second century CE (or AD) to distinguish vowel from consonant. For convenience, both V and U are employed in the Latin texts of most modern editions and in this course as well.  The letters y, z, and k are infrequent and usually found in words of Greek origin.  The Roman alphabet lacks the letters j and w.  The Roman letter i was both a vowel and a consonant.  The letter j was added during the Middle Ages for consonantal i. Thus Iūlius came to be written Jūlius. This course adheres to the Roman usage of i.

There are two important keys to pronouncing Latin:  There are no silent letters. Even final e’s are pronounced. Latin is essentially WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get!).  Unlike English, Latin is quite consistent in the sound a letter represents. This is especially true of vowels. Once you get used to a few rules and patterns, you can easily predict the pronunciation of a Latin word.

EXERCEĀMUS Spell in Latin the following words: Example: Styx: es - tē - i Graeca - ics

miles sermo ianua Hispania saxum tyrannus

Vowels

Vowels in Latin had only two possible pronunciations, long and short. Long vowels were generally held about twice as long as short vowels. In your Latin textbook (though not in actual classical texts), long vowels are marked with a "macron," or (long mark). Vowels typed without a macron are short. Romans did not use or need these macrons, but you should pay attention to these marks, since the differences of pronunciation they indicate are often crucial to meaning, as English the difference between meet and met.

Latin examples:

liber is a noun meaning book, while līber is an adjective meaning free the noun ōs means mouth, while the noun os means bone

The pronunciations are approximately as follows:

Long: Short:

ā as in father : dās, cāra a as in ahead: dat, casa

ē as in they : mē, sēdēs e as in pet: et, sed

ī as in machine: hīc, sīca i as in pin: hic, sicca

ō as in clover: ōs, mōrēs o as in off: os, mora

ū as in rude: tū, sūmō u as in put: tum, sum y extremely rare in Latin, this letter was introduced to spell words borrowed from Greek, like perstylium. Has a sound made by combining the sounds “ee” and “u” together. Unlike English, it is always a vowel in Latin, may be either long or short. tyrannus

Diphthongs

A diphthong is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Therefore, diphthongs are never separated in syllabification, and diphthongs are always long. Latin has the following six diphthongs:

ae as in aisle cārae, saepe, puellae oe as in oil coepit, proelium au as in house aut, laudō eu as in ey-oo seu ei as in eight deinde This diphthong occurs only in: huius, cuius, huic,cui, hui ui like in Spanish muy Elsewhere the two letters are spoken separately as in: fuit (fu-it), frūctuī (frūc-tu-ī)

NOTĀ BENE:

The combinations of ae and oe may not be diphthongs. In that case, the second vowel of the group is marked with a dieresis (¨) or with a macron, and it forms a separate vowel sound, occupying a different syllable.

caelum contains a diphthong, and is syllabified cae-lum aër contains two separate vowel sounds, and is syllabified a-ër

moenia contains a diphthong and is syllabified moe-ni-a poëta contains two separate vowel sounds, and is syllabified po-ë-ta

EXERCEĀMUS Circle only the diphthongs in the following words:

aestas aurum mei Hispania coërceo puellae iustitia proelium cuius auxilium poena Europa

Consonants

Latin consonants are pronounced as in English, with the following exceptions:

bs/bt were pronounced ps and pt urbs, obtineō c always hard as in can, never soft as in city cum, cīvis, facilis glōria, gerō, rigidus, g always hard as in get, never soft as in gem agenda

was a breathing sound, as in English, only less harshly h hic, haec pronounced

represented both a vowel and a consonant sound. It usually functioned as a consonant with the sound of y as in yes when used before a vowel at the beginning of a word: iūstus. iubeō, iūstus, maior, Between two vowels within a word it served in cuius i double capacity: as the vowel i forming a diphthong (ei/ui), and as the consonant like English y: maior ( = mai yor). Otherwise, it was usually a vowel. Consonantal i regularly appears in English derivatives as a j, a letter added to the alphabet in the Middle Ages; hence maior = major, Iūlius = Julius.

as in English, is always followed by consonantal u, the q quid, quoque combination having the sound kw

was trilled; the Romans called it the littera canīna, r Rōma, cūrāre because its sound suggested the snarling of a dog.

s always as in our see, never as in ease sed, mensa, mīsi sc always hard as in escape scrībō, discipulus

always had the sound of t as in tired, never of sh as t taciturnitās, nātiōnem in nation or ch as in mention

v as w in west verbum, vīvō, vīnum

had the sound of ks as in axle. Xerxes is pronounced x mixtum, exerceō Kserkses, This letter counts as a double consonant ks.

Consonants blend

It has a nasal blend. Try to make it sound a bit like the gn magnus gn in the Italian lasagna.

counted as a single consonant as the kw sound as in equus, quī, qu/gu quiet extinguo

pronounced like the ch in choir or chiropractor, not like ch chorus, Archilochus the ch in church

technically this combination of letters is pronounced ph like p followed by a breath. Most Latin words with ph philosophia come from the Greek letter phi.

represented Greek theta and had the sound of th in hot th theatrum house, not of th in thin or the.

NOTĀ BENE:

Pronounce every consonant, and pronounce double consonants as two separate consonants. For instance, the rr in the Latin word currant was pronounced as two separate r's, like the two r's in the cur ran; likewise the tt in admittent sounded like the two t's in admit ten.

EXERCEĀMUS Read the following words:

genius facile Polyphemus nequitia agenda otium caelum chorus ancilla discipula Aeschynes Europa

Syllables

In Latin as in English, a word has as many syllables as it has vowels or diphthongs. What is a syllable?

Dividing a word into syllables is called syllabification. A syllable is a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound or one diphthong sound with or without surrounding consonants. Rules of Latin syllabification:

1. There is a syllable for every vowel/diphthong. 2. Two contiguous vowels or a vowel and a diphthong are separated: dea › de-a; deae › de-ae (-ae is a diphthong) However, the letter i, functions as a consonant when is placed at the beginning of a word followed by a vowel, or between two vowels within a word when it does not form a diphthong ianua › ia-nu-a; peior › pe-ior; deinde › dein-de 3. A single consonant between two vowels goes with the second vowel: amīcus › a-mī-cus 4. When two or more consonants stand between two vowels, generally only the last consonant goes with the second vowel: mittō › mit-tō; servāre › ser-vā-re; cōnsūmptus › cōn-sūmp-tus However, there are few exceptions to this rule: a. A stop (p, b, t, d, c, g) or a fricative (f) plus a liquid (l,r) generally count as a single consonant and go with the following vowel: patrem › pa-trem; castra › cas-tra; Africa › A-fri-ca b. The consonantal groups qu, gu, ch, ph, th counts as single consonants and should never be separated in syllabification: architectus › ar-chi-tec-tus loquācem › lo-quā-cem

EXERCEĀMUS Syllabify the following words (review the rules of syllabification before syllabifying each world):

anima Philippus patria

nequitia heu otium caelum confrēgit quem lingua agricola Iunōnīs iocus vitaque accessus iam architectura Europa

Syllable Quantity

Just as there are long and short vowel, there are also long and short syllables. It is not necessary to think about long and short syllables when pronunciation Latin words, but it is necessary to identify long and short syllables in order to know what syllable to accent.

A syllable is long:

1. by nature, if it contains a long vowel (marked with a macron) or a diphthong; 2. by position, if it contains a short vowel followed by two or more consonants or by x, which is a double consonant: ks.

Otherwise a syllable is short.

Syllables long by nature (here underlined): lau-dō, Rō-ma, a-mī-cus. Syllables long by position (underlined): ser-vat, sa-pi-en-ti-a, ax-is ( = ak-sis). Examples with all long syllables underlined, whether long by nature or long by position: lau-dā-te, mo-ne-ō, sae-pe, cōn-ser-vā-tis, pu-el-lā-rum.

Syllable quantity is important in Latin for at least two reasons: first, syllable quantity was a major determinant of the rhythm of Latin poetry, as you will learn later in your study of the language; and, of more immediate importance, syllable quantity determined the position of a word's stress accent, as explained below.

EXERCEĀMUS Below each syllable, write S if it is short, LN if it is long by nature, LP if it is long by position. Do not confuse long/short syllables with long/short vowels! Example: i-ni-mī-cus; dē-mons-trō S-S-LN-S LN-LP-LN

a-ni-ma ver-bum per-sae-pe

pa-ti-ē-mur o-cel-līs dē-por-tant

cae-lum con-frē-git per-pau-ca

dē-lē-gī a-gri-co-lā-rum Iup-pi-ter

sae-vae in-gen-tem lae-tis-si-mus

is-tī-us ar-chi-tec-tu-ram fē-mi-nā

Accent

Words in Latin, like those in English, were pronounced with extra emphasis on one syllable; the placement of this "stress accent" in Latin (unlike English) followed these strict and simple rules:

1. In a word of two syllables the accent always falls on the next to last syllable (called the PENULT):

sér-vō, sáe-pe, ní-hil

2. In a word of three or more syllables, the accent falls on the next to last syllable (the PENULT), if that syllable is long:

ser-vā´-re, cōn-sér-vat, for-tū´-na

3. Otherwise, the accent falls on the syllable before that (called the ANTEPENULT), no matter if it is long or short:

mó-ne-ō, pá-tri-a, pe-cū´-ni-a, vó-lu-cris

 The accent never falls on the last syllable (few exceptions to this rule are adhùc, illìc, illùc).  The accent never goes over the antepenult.

The last three syllables of a word, so important for word stress, have names as shown below:

a mī cus dē mons tro ANTEPENULT PENULT ULTIMA 2nd last next last last

the accent falls on the accent falls on the accent never this syllable if the this syllable if it falls on this PENULT is a is long (either by syllable short syllable nature or position) 9

EXERCEĀMUS Mark the syllable to be stressed by placing an x above it.

a-ni-ma in-fī-dus per-sae-pe

pa-ti-ē-mur o-cel-līs dē-por-tant

e-dū-cō con-frē-git Mer-cu-ri-us

dē-lē-gī a-gri-co-lā-rum Iup-pi-ter

e-du-cō in-gen-tem lae-tis-si-mus

in-ter-fec-tus mo-ri-tū-rus ha-ben-tur

is-tī-us phi-lo-so-phi-a fē-mi-nā

EXERCEĀMUS

Complete the statements, by filling in the gaps:

A long vowel is a marked with a ______, and takes approximately twice as long to pronounce a ______vowel.

A syllable is long by nature if it contains a ______or a ______.

A syllable is long by position if it ends in two or more ______, regardless of the length of the vowel.

The Latin accent falls on the penult syllable if this is ______.

If the penult is a short syllable, the accent falls on the ______.

The ______syllable is never accented.