# Tacitus [pronunciation]



## ondachica

Can someone please tell me how to pronounce the famous historian Tactitus' name?  I am a beginner and am teaching myself.  I want to pronounce classical Latin as correctly as possible.  I am reading a translation of The Annals and don't want to mispronounce his name for 400 pages.  I found a site that claimed to pronounce famous names and they pronounced Tacitus....Taeseetus.  But shouldn't it be Tuhkeetus?  A as in await, with a hard C and I and U as normal? Thank you for any help, cj​


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## ondachica

Orbis Latinus says that initially *c* in classical Latin was written to mark a softened [k’] sound before the anterior vowels e and i and the diphthongs ae and oe, while *k* was written before a, o.  What does the softened k' sound like then?  Wheelock says C is always hard like CAN never soft like CITY. cj


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## CapnPrep

You are right: the classical pronunciation would have a hard [k] sound. But if you're reading a translation, it's probably more appropriate to use his familiar English name, which is… Tacitus [ˈtæsɪtəs].


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## ondachica

Thank you very much.....cj


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## Javierusc

ondachica said:


> Thank you very much.....c





ondachica said:


> Thank you very much.....cj


I believe it's Taw Kee Toose, in Latin


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## Agró

tacitusClásico (AFI): [ˈta.kɪ.tʊs]

Source


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## Sobakus

It would have been a noble use of a time machine to undo this necropost, but in the absence of one, the best I can do is point towards recordings of the correct pronunciation of this word: link #1 (the ones by giorgiospizzi and d1m0n), link #2 (by sicerabibax).


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