Latin pronunciation, both in the classical and post-classical age, has varied across different regions and different eras. As the respective languages have undergone sound changes, the changes have often applied to the pronunciation of Latin as well.
Latin still in use today is more often pronounced according to context, rather than geography. For a century, Italianate (perhaps more properly, modern Roman) Latin has been the official pronunciation of the Catholic Church due to the centrality of Italy and Italian, and this is the default of many singers and choirs. In the interest of historically informed performance, some singers of Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music adopt the pronunciation of the composer's period and region. While in Western university classics departments the reconstructed classical pronunciation has been general since around 1945,[ citation needed ] in the Anglo-American legal professions the older style of academic Latin still survives.
The following table shows the main differences between different regions with the International Phonetic Alphabet. This is far from a complete listing and lacks the local variations exhibited through centuries, but is intended to give an outline of main characteristics of different regions.
Sign | Example | Classical | Italian | Romanian [1] | Spanish | Portuguese [2] | French | Catalan | Slavic | German/Uralic | Danish | English [3] | Greek [4] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a | canis | /a/ | /a/ | /a(ː)/ | /æ(ː)/(/a(ː)/) | /æ/ or /eɪ/ | /a/ | ||||||
ā | cāsus | /aː/ | |||||||||||
ae (æ) | saepe, bonae | /aɪ,ae/, later /ɛː/ | /ɛ/ | /e/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ (pronounced /e/ when not stressed) | /ɛ/ | /ɛː/ | /ɛ/ or /iː/ | /e/ | |||
ce,i,ae,oe | benedīcimus | /k/ | /tʃ/ [5] | /θ/ or /s/ | /s/ | /ts/ | /s/ | /k/ | |||||
ch | pulcher | /kʰ/ | /k/ | /x/ | /x/or/ç/ | /k(ʰ)/ | /k/ | /k/ | |||||
e | venī ("come", imperative singular) | /ɛ/ | /e/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ (pronounced /e/ when not stressed) | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ or /eː/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛ/ or /iː/ | /e/ | |||
ē | vēnī ("I came", "I have come") | /eː/ | /e/ | /eː/ | |||||||||
ge,i,ae,oe | agimus | /ɡ/ | /dʒ/ | /d͡ʒ/ | /x/ | /ʒ/ | /ʒ/ or /dʒ/ | /ɡ/ | /dʒ/ | /g/ | |||
gn | magnum | /ŋn/or/gn/ | /ɲɲ/ | /ɡn/ | /ɣn/ | /ɲ/or/ɡn/ | /ɡn/ | /ŋn/ | /ɡn/ | /ɡn/or/ŋn/ | /ŋn/ | /ɡn/ | |
h | hominibus | /h,-/ | /-/ | /h/ | /-/ | /x/ (Polish, the usual current value) or /ɦ/ or /ɣ/ | /h/ | /h/or/x/,/ç/(beforee/i) | |||||
i | fides | /ɪ/ | /i/ | /i/ (Russian also /ɨ/ after "c") | /ɪ/ or /iː/ | /i/ | /ɪ/ or /aɪ/ | /i/ | |||||
ī | fīlius | /iː/ | |||||||||||
j | Jesus | /j/ | /j/ | /j/ | /x/ | /ʒ/ | /j/ (but it can also be pronounced /ʒ/ or /dʒ/) | /j/ | /dʒ/ | /ʝ/ | |||
o | solum | /ɔ/ | /o/ | /ɔ/ | /o(ː)/ | /ɔ/ (pronounced /o/ when not stressed) | /ɔ/ or /o/ or /ʷo/ (Russian) | /ɔ/ or /oː/ | /ɔ/ | /ɒ/ or /oʊ/ | /o/ | ||
ō | sōlus | /oː/ | /o/ | /o/ | /o/ | /oː/ | |||||||
oe (œ) | poena | /ɔɪ,oe/, later /eː/ | /e/ | /ɛ/ or /ʲo/ (Russian) | /øː/,/e:/ | /øː/ | /ɛ/ or /iː/ | /ø/,/e/ | |||||
qu | quis | /kʷ/ | /kw/ | /kv/ or /kw/ | /kw/ or /k/ | /kʷ/ | /kw/a/kɥ/æ,e,i/k/o,u | /kw/ | /kv/ (Polish: /kf/) | /kv/ | /kʰv/ | /kw/ | /kv/ |
sungeminated between vowels | rosa | /s/ | /s/ or /z/ | /z/ | /s/ | /z/ | /s/ | /s/ or /z/ | /z/ | ||||
sce,i,ae,oe | ascendit | /sk/ | /ʃː/ | /st͡ʃ/ | /sθ/ or /s/ | /s/ or /ʃ/ | /s/ | /sts/ | /s/ | /sk/ | |||
tiV | nātiō | /tɪ/ | /tsj/ | /t͡si/ | /θj/ or /sj/ | /sj/ | /si/ | /tsi/ or /tsɨ/ or /ti/ (Polish academic for both traditional and reconstructed pronunciations) | /tsi/ or /tsj/ | /ʃ/ | /ʃi/ | /ti/ | |
u | ut, sumus | /ʊ/ | /u/ | /y(ː)/ | /u/ | /ʊ/ or /uː/ | /u(ː)/(/o/) | /ʌ/ or /juː/ | /u/ | ||||
ū | lūna | /uː/ | |||||||||||
um | curriculum | /ʊ̃/ | /um/ | /ũ/ | /ɔm/ | /um/ | /um/ or /ʊm/ | /ʊm/ | /om/ | /əm/ | /um/ | ||
v | veritās | /w/, later /v/ | /v/ | /b/ or /β/ | /v/ | /ʋ/ | /v/ | ||||||
xce,i,ae,oe | excelsis | /ksk/ | /kʃ/ [6] [7] [8] | /kst͡ʃ/ | /sθ/ or /s/ | /ks/, /s/ or /ʃ/ | /ɡz/ or /ks/ | /ks/ | /ksts/ | /ksts/ | /ks/ | /ksk/ | |
z | zodiacus | /dz/ | /z/ | /θ/ or /s/ | /z/ | /z/ or /dz/ | /z/ | /ts/ | /s/ | /z/ |
In many countries, these regional varieties are still in general use in schools and churches. The Italian model is increasingly advocated in ecclesiastical contexts and now widely followed in such contexts by speakers of English, sometimes with slight variations. The Liber Usualis prescribes a silent "h", except in the two words "mihi" and "nihil", which are pronounced /miki/ and /nikil/ (this is not universally followed). Some Anglophone singers choose to pronounce "h" as /h/ for extra clarity.
H, or h, is the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, including the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is aitch, or regionally haitch.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation of speech sounds in written form. The IPA is used by lexicographers, foreign language students and teachers, linguists, speech–language pathologists, singers, actors, constructed language creators, and translators.
Latin phonology is the system of sounds used in various kinds of Latin. This article largely deals with what features can be deduced for Classical Latin as it was spoken by the educated from the late Roman Republic to the early Empire. Evidence comes in the form of comments from Roman grammarians, common spelling mistakes, transcriptions into other languages, and the outcomes of various sounds in Romance.
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is o, plural oes.
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Œ is a Latin alphabet grapheme, a ligature of o and e. In medieval and early modern Latin, it was used in borrowings from Greek that originally contained the diphthong οι, and in a few non-Greek words. These usages continue in English and French. In French, the words that were borrowed from Latin and contained the Latin diphthong written as œ now generally have é or è; but œ is still used in some non-learned French words, representing open-mid front rounded vowels, such as œil ("eye") and sœur ("sister").
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The Hebrew language uses the Hebrew alphabet with optional vowel diacritics. The romanization of Hebrew is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Hebrew words.
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