# Classical pronunciation



## Fidelia

I was wondering what everyone was taught to be "classical" pronunciation of Latin, because I have recently heard that the idea differs, so I was wondering if anyone knows about any disagreement.

I was (and have been) taught that to the best of what linguists/historians can piece together, this is Classical Latin pronunciation (as in Ancient Rome) as opposed to medieval/ ecclessiastical:

c- always hard
g- always hard
h- pronouned, not not silent

dipthongs:
ae- sounds like "eye"
oe- sounds like "oy"

These are the major differences I have found, though there may be others.


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## diegodbs

Fidelia said:
			
		

> I was wondering what everyone was taught to be "classical" pronunciation of Latin, because I have recently heard that the idea differs, so I was wondering if anyone knows about any disagreement.
> 
> I was (and have been) taught that to the best of what linguists/historians can piece together, this is Classical Latin pronunciation (as in Ancient Rome) as opposed to medieval/ ecclessiastical:
> 
> c- always hard
> g- always hard
> h- pronouned, not not silent
> 
> dipthongs:
> ae- sounds like "eye"
> oe- sounds like "oy"
> 
> These are the major differences I have found, though there may be others.


 
I was taught that Classical Latin pronunciation was:

c- always hard
g- always hard
h- silent
v- always w

English diphthongs or vowels are not a good guide to Latin pronunciation. German, Italian or Spanish vowels are clearer and can be made to represent much better Latin vowels

ae- sounds like Italian-Spanish (a) + Italian-Spanish (e)
oe- sounds like Italian-Spanish (o) + Italian-Spanish (e)


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## Anne345

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/cc303/sounds/


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## Cnaeius

I was taught Classical Latin pronunciation as Diegodbs
Practically speaking for me: pronouncing latin as italian with the exception of g c and v and minding vowel length
Ciao


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## diegodbs

Anne345 said:
			
		

> http://www.utexas.edu/courses/cc303/sounds/


 
In this link, some consonants have a slight English accent, "C" and "R". but the vowels seem right.
And "y" is not pronounced as it says, French u, or German ü, 
they pronounce Aegyptus as Aeguptus.


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## Outsider

Latin went through some sound changes already in Antiquity. For example, if I remember correctly, intervocalic _h_ became silent quite early; final _m_ also became silent during the early Empire; the monophthongation of _ae_ and _oe_ started well before the Middle Ages... 
So, it's quite possible that different authors will adopt slightly different pronunciations for classical Latin, if they are using different historical periods as references.


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## xav

What about s ? We were taught that its pronounciation was always hard, never "z". But no one of us was ever able to declinate "rossa, rossa, rossam etc".


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## Outsider

I don't know.


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## Le Pamplemousse

I was taught to pronounce the "h" in Classical...otherwise the same as everyone else.


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## Fernando

Maybe I have not understood something: When you say "g" always hard. You mean as in Spanish "gue" (/ge/) or "gi" (khi)? I was said it was the first way.

I ever enjoyed that Marcus Tullius Cicero (Sp. Cicerón) = Márkus Túlius Kíkero.


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## Le Pamplemousse

The hard "g" is indeed as in Spanish "gue".


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## Fidelia

I was taught v sounded like w also. forgot to add it. oops.
There are no s's as z's as I am being taught.
The stuff at the link looks like everything I have been taught. v is not on it though.


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## DaleC

Fidelia said:
			
		

> I was wondering what everyone was taught to be "classical" pronunciation of Latin, because I have recently heard that the idea differs, so I was wondering if anyone knows about any disagreement./quote]
> 
> Any disagreements don't involve the spellings you cite; those are beyond doubt.
> 
> The are a few books devoted entirely to the pedagogy of Latin pronunciation. You should start with something like Encyclopedia Britannica.


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