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Latin is a dead language,
it is plain to see.
It killed off all the Romans,
and now it's killing me.
Pronunciation
Because Latin is dead, we cannot know for certain how it sounded. But a reasonably accurate guide to the sounds of Latin has been established using ancient authorities, inscriptions, and inferences from the modern Romance languages.
Vowels are pure and may be long or short:
| Latin | is pronounced as |
|---|---|
| short a | a in rat |
| long a | a in rather |
| short e | e in pen |
| long e | ay in pay |
| short i | i in kin |
| long i | ee in keen |
| short o | o in rob |
| long o | o in robe |
| short u | u in full |
| long u | oo in fool |
Diphthongs:
| Latin | is pronounced as |
|---|---|
| ae | y in try |
| au | ow in town |
| ei | ayee in payee |
| eu | ay-oo, with accent on ay |
| oe | oy in toy |
| ui | oui in Louis |
Consonants are pronounced as in English, with some exceptions and qualifications:
| Latin | is pronounced as |
|---|---|
| b | in English |
| bs | ps in aspe |
| bt | pt in apt |
| c | c in car |
| ch | ch in sepulchre |
| d | in English |
| f | in English |
| g | g in go |
| h | h in hand (faintly) |
| i | y in yes |
| k | in English |
| l | l in let |
| m | m in man (except final m was hardly sounded) |
| n | in English |
| ng | ng in finger |
| p | p in apt |
| ph | p in pill |
| qu | qu in quite |
| r | r in brae (Scottish) |
| s | s in sister (never as in rose) |
| t | t in stop |
| th | t in take |
| u, v | w in win |
| x | x in six (a ks, not gs) |
| z | z in zero |
| Lesson I | The Alphabet | |
| Lesson II | Pronunciation | |
| Lesson III | Accent | |
| Lesson IV | Declensions of Nouns | |
| Lesson V | Conjugations of Verbs | |
| Lesson VI | Irregular Verbs | |
| Lesson VII | Vocabulary | |
| Lesson VIII | Roman Numerals | |
| Lesson IX | Dates |
E-mail me at webmeister@jessiegietl.com.
Please teach Latin to your children.
You'll never regret it, even if they forget it.
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NextAll content Copyright © 1999 Jessie Gietl