# -ae [pronunciation]



## csicska

Hello. Could you please tell me if -ae when at the end of a Latin word is pronounce /i:/ (as in "m*ee*k")? Thank you.

Examples:
umbrae
unciae
ungulae
urethrae
ursae
usneae
usquabae
usquebae
uvulae
vaginae
valleculae
valvulae
venae
verrucae
vertebrae
vesicae
vesiculae


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## Scholiast

salvete, et felicem Nativitatis festum vobis commendat omnibus Scholiasta

In classical Latin the diphthong _ae _is pronounced to rhyme with English "eye" or German "*Ei*". In vulgar, late, scientific and the Italianate Latin in which it is mostly sung for ecclesiastical purposes, it rhymes with English "air" or "hay", or German "ä".

As regards "usquebae", neat(!) joke .

Σ


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## csicska

Thank you, Scholiast. 

Happy Holidays!


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## Scholiast

Slàinte mhath!

Σ


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## francisgranada

The dipthong _ae_ was never pronounced as it is written, i.e. _a+e _(without any hiatus between)? 
Or, why wasn't it spelled _ai_?


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## Scholiast

salvete iterum!

@francisgranada (# 5): the diphthong _-ae-_ was indeed sometimes spelled -_ai-_, as (for example) a quick check of the indices to Dessau's _ILS_ will show. There was of course debate about the proprieties of orthography already in the time of Cicero and Caesar, and this may well have been one of the issues. Unfortunately I don't have my books to hand, and cannot therefore check the references. But my best guess would be that the standardisation of the spelling _ae_ was (relatively) late and a development ensuing from the vulgar pronunciation to which I alluded in # 2 here.

Σ


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## francisgranada

Scholiast said:


> But my best guess would be that the standardisation of the spelling _ae_ was (relatively) late and a development ensuing from the vulgar pronunciation to which I alluded in # 2 here.


In such case I'd expect a simple -_e_ (well, it's only an _ad hoc_ reaction of mine, as I don't know the circumstances). My idea/impression was that the pronunciation [ae] was the "original" (oldest), that's why this spelling. The vulgar or late Latin pronunciation [e] can be explained easily from the former [ai], independently on the spelling.


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