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The traditional English pronunciation of Latin, and Classical Greek words borrowed through Latin, is the way the Latin language was traditionally pronounced by speakers of English until the early 20th century. Although this pronunciation is no longer taught in Latin classes, it is still broadly used in the fields of biology, law, and medicine. [1]
In the Middle Ages speakers of English, from Middle English onward, pronounced Latin not as the ancient Romans did, but in the way that had developed among speakers of French. This traditional pronunciation then became closely linked to the pronunciation of English, and as the pronunciation of English changed with time, the English pronunciation of Latin changed as well.
Until the beginning of the 19th century all English speakers used this pronunciation, including Roman Catholics for liturgical purposes. [2] Following Catholic emancipation in Britain in 1829 and the subsequent Oxford Movement, newly converted Catholics preferred the Italianate pronunciation, which became the norm for the Catholic liturgy. Meanwhile, scholarly proposals were made for a reconstructed Classical pronunciation, close to the pronunciation used in the late Roman Republic and early Empire, and with a more transparent relationship between spelling and pronunciation.
One immediate audible difference between the pronunciations is in the treatment of vowels. The English pronunciation of Latin applied vowel sound changes which had occurred within English itself, where stressed vowels in a word became quite different from their unstressed counterpart. In the other two pronunciations of Latin, vowel sounds were not changed. Among consonants, the treatment of the letter c followed by a front vowel was one clear distinction. Thus the name Cicero is pronounced in English as /ˈsɪsəroʊ/ SISS-ə-r-oh, in ecclesiastical Latin as [ˈtʃitʃero] , and in restored classical Latin as [ˈkɪkɛroː] . (Similarly with et cetera, etc.)
The competition between the three pronunciations grew towards the end of the 19th century. By the beginning of the 20th century, however, a consensus for change had developed. The Classical Association, shortly after its foundation in 1903, put forward a detailed proposal for a reconstructed classical pronunciation. This was supported by other professional and learned bodies. Finally in February 1907 their proposal was officially recommended by the Board of Education for use in schools throughout the UK. [3] [4] Adoption of the "new pronunciation" was a long, drawn-out process, [5] but by the mid-20th century, classroom instruction in the traditional English pronunciation had ceased.
The traditional pronunciation survives in academic and general English vocabulary:
In most cases, the English pronunciation of Classical words and names is predictable from the orthography, as long as long and short vowels are distinguishable in the source. For Latin, Latinized Greek or for long versus short α, ι, υ Greek vowels, this means that macrons and breves must be used if the pronunciation is to be unambiguous. However, the conventions of biological nomenclature forbid the use of these diacritics, and in practice they are not found in astronomical names or in literature. Without this information, it may not be possible to ascertain the placement of stress, and therefore the pronunciation of the vowels in English.
Note that the following rules are generalizations, and that many names have well established idiosyncratic pronunciations.
Latin stress is predictable. It falls on the penultimate syllable when that is "heavy", and on the antepenultimate syllable when the penult is "light".
In Greek, stress is not predictable, but it may be ignored when pronouncing Greek borrowings, as they have been filtered through Latin and have acquired the stress patterns of Latin words.
A syllable is "light" if it ends in a single short vowel. For example, a, ca, sca, scra are all light syllables for the purposes of Latin stress assignment.
Any other syllable is "heavy":
Latin diphthongs may be written ⟨æ⟩ or ⟨ae⟩, ⟨œ⟩ or ⟨oe⟩. Long vowels are written with a macron: ā ē ī ō ū ȳ, though this is a modern convention. Greek long vowels are ει, η, ου, ω, sometimes ι, υ, and occasionally α. (Long α is uncommon.) For example, Actaeon is pronounced /ækˈtiːɒn/ ak-TEE-on or /ækˈtiːən/ ak-TEE-ən. A diaeresis indicates that the vowels do not form a diphthong: Arsinoë /ɑːrˈsɪnoʊiː/ ar-SIN-oh-ee (not *AR-sin-ee).
The importance of marking long vowels for Greek words can be illustrated with Ixion, from Greek Ἰξίων. As it is written, the English pronunciation might be expected to be * /ˈɪksiɒn/ IK-see-on. However, length marking, Ixīōn, makes it clear that it should be pronounced /ɪkˈsaɪɒn/ ik-SY-on.
When a consonant ends a word, or when more than a single consonant follows a vowel within a word, the syllable is closed and therefore heavy. (A consonant is not the same thing as a letter. The letters x[ks] and z[dz] each count as two consonants, but th[θ], ch[k], and ph[f] count as one, as the pronunciations in brackets indicate.) The English letter j was originally an i, forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel, so it forces the stress just as æ, œ, z, and x do.
If more than two syllables precede the stressed syllable, the same rules determine which is stressed. For example, in Cassiopeia (also Cassiopēa), syllabified cas-si-o-pei-a, the penult pei/pē contains a long vowel/diphthong and is therefore stressed. The second syllable preceding the stress, si, is light, so the stress must fall one syllable further back, on cas (which coincidentally happens to be a closed syllable and therefore heavy). Therefore, the standard English pronunciation is /ˌkæsiəˈpiːə,-sioʊ-/ KAS-ee-ə-PEE-ə, -see-oh-. [7] (Note however that this word also has an irregular pronunciation in English: /ˌkæsiˈoʊpiə/ KAS-ee-OH-pee-ə.)
Whether a vowel letter is pronounced "long" in English ( /eɪ,iː,aɪ,oʊ,juː/ ) or "short" ( /æ,ɛ,ɪ,ɒ,ʌ/ ) is unrelated to the length of the original Latin or Greek vowel. Instead it depends on position and stress. A vowel followed by a consonant at the end of a word is short in English, except that final -es is always long, as in Pales /ˈpeɪliːz/ PAY-leez. In the middle of a word, a vowel followed by more than one consonant is short, as in Hermippe /hərˈmɪpi/ hər-MIP-ee, while a vowel with no following consonant is long. However, when a vowel is followed by a single consonant (or by a cluster of p, t, c/k plus l, r) and then another vowel, it gets more complicated.
Regardless of position, stressed u stays long before a single consonant (or a cluster of p, t, c/k plus l, r), as in Jupiter /ˈdʒuːpɪtər/ JOO-pit-ər.
Traditionally, English syllables have been described as 'open' when their vowel (in English) is long and they are followed by a single consonant followed by another vowel, and as 'closed' in the same environment when their vowel is short. However, it is debated how accurate this analysis is, as in English syllables tend to attract a following consonant, especially when they are stressed, so that all stressed syllables followed by a consonant are arguably 'closed'. Such following consonants are sometimes described as ambisyllabic. This effect is especially apparent in some dialects, such as RP, when the consonant in question is /r/, which affects the quality of the preceding vowel. None of this changes the patterns described in this article: The long-short distinction described above is maintained regardless. For example, the 'e' in Hera is long regardless of whether it is pronounced /ˈhiːrə/ or /ˈhɪərə/ in a particular dialect, or analyzed as open HEE-rə or as closed HEER-ə. American dictionaries tend to follow the former transcription, and British dictionaries the latter, so when the consonant 'r' is involved the rules for the English pronunciation of Latin words are more straightforward when using the conventions of American dictionaries.
Anglo-Latin includes all of the letters of the English alphabet except w, viz.: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v x y z. It differs from Classical Latin in distinguishing i from j and u from v. In addition to these letters, the digraphs æ and œ may be used (as in Cæsar and phœnix). These two digraphs respectively represent mergers of the letters ae and oe (diphthongs, as are Greek αι and οι) and are often written that way (e.g., Caesar, phoenix). However, since in Anglo-Latin both ae and oe represent a simple vowel, not a diphthong, the use of the single letters æ and œ better represents the reality of Anglo-Latin pronunciation. Despite being written with two letters, the Greek sequences ch, ph, rh, th represent single sounds. The letters x and Greek z, on the other hand, are sequences of two sounds (being equivalent to cs and dz).
Anglo-Latin includes a large amount of Greek vocabulary; in principle, any Greek noun or adjective can be converted into an Anglo-Latin word. There is a conventional set of equivalents between the letters of the Greek and Roman alphabets, which differs in some respects from the current mode of Romanizing Greek. This is laid out in the tables below:
Vowels | Diphthongs | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Greek letter | α | ε | η | ι | ο | υ | ω | αι | ει | οι | υι | αυ | ευ | ου | |||
Romanization | a | ā | e | ē | i | ī | o | u | ū | ō | ai | ei | oi | ui | au | eu | ou |
Conversion to Latin | a | ā | e | ē | i | ī | o | y | ȳ | ō | æ | ī | œ | yi | au | eu | ū |
Consonants | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Greek letter | ʻ | β | γ | γγ | γκ | γξ | γχ | δ | ζ | θ | κ | λ | μ | ν | ξ | π | ρ | ῤ | ῥ | ῤῥ | σ | ς | τ | φ | χ | ψ |
Romanization | h | b | g | gg | gk | gx | gch | d | z | th | k | l | m | n | x | p | r | hr | rhr | s | t | ph | ch | ps | ||
Conversion to Latin | h | b | g | ng | nc | nx | nch | d | z | th | c | l | m | n | x | p | r | rh | rrh | s | t | ph | ch | ps |
Rh is used for Greek ρ at the beginnings of words, e.g. ῥόμβος (rhombos) > rhombus. Rarely (and mostly in words relatively recently adapted from Greek), k is used to represent Greek κ. In such cases it is always pronounced [k] and never [s] (as it might be if spelled c) : e.g. σκελετός (skeletos) > skeleton not "sceleton".
Greek accent marks and breath marks, other than the "rough breathing" (first in the list of consonants above), are entirely disregarded; the Greek pitch accent is superseded by a Latin stress accent, which is described below.
Frequently, but not universally, certain Greek nominative endings are changed to Latin ones that cannot be predicted from the tables above. Occasionally forms with both endings are found in Anglo-Latin, for instance Latinized hyperbola next to Greek hyperbole. The most usual equations are found below:
Endings | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Greek ending | -η | -εια | -ον | -ειον | -ος | -ρος after a consonant | -ειος |
Romanization | -ē | -eia | -on | -eion | -os | -ros | -eios |
Latin ending | -ā | -ēa -īa | -um | -ēum -īum | -us | -er | -ēus -īus |
Examples:
The underlying consonantal phonemes of Anglo-Latin are close in most respects to those of Latin, the primary difference being that /w/ and /j/ are replaced in Anglo-Latin by /v/ v and /dʒ/ j. The sound /θ/ th was borrowed from Greek.
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palato-alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | |||||
Stop | voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ | |||
voiced | /b/ | /d/ | /ɡ/ | ||||
Affricate | /dʒ/ | ||||||
Fricative | voiceless | /f/ | /θ/ | /s/ | /h/ | ||
voiced | /v/ | /z/ | |||||
Approximant | central | /r/ | |||||
lateral | /l/ |
Several word-initial clusters, almost all derived from Greek, are simplified in Anglo-Latin by omitting the first consonant:
In the middle of words both consonants in these clusters are pronounced (e.g. Charybdis, Patmos, Procne, prognosis, amnesia, apnœa, synopsis, cactus, captor); medial chth and phth are pronounced /kθ/ and /fθ/ respectively, as in autochthon and naphtha.
The letters c, d, g, h, n, s, t and x have different sounds (phonemes) depending upon their environment: these are listed summarily below.
Letter | c | d | g | h | n | s | t | x |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Underlying sound | /k/ | /d/ | /ɡ/ | /h/ | /n/ | /s/ | /t/ | /ks/ |
Primary phonemes | /s/ | /dʒ/ | ∅ | /ŋ/ | /z/ | /s/ | /z/, /ɡz/ | |
Secondary phonemes | /ʃ/ | /dʒ/ | /ʃ/ /ʒ/ | /tʃ/ /ʃ/ | /kʃ/ |
The full set of consonantal phonemes for Anglo-Latin is almost identical to that of English, lacking only /ð/.
Sounds of Anglo-Latin | Labials | Interdentals | Alveolars | Palatals | Velars | Glottals | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stops | voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ | |||
voiced | /b/ | /d/ | /ɡ/ | ||||
Affricates | voiceless | /tʃ/ | |||||
voiced | /dʒ/ | ||||||
Fricatives | voiceless | /f/ | /θ/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /h/ | |
voiced | /v/ | /z/ | /ʒ/ | ||||
Nasals | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | ||||
Approximants | /w/ | /ɹ/ /l/ | /j/ |
Environments that condition the appearance of some of these phonemes are listed below:
Sound affected | Spelling | Environment | Resulting sound | Examples |
---|---|---|---|---|
/h/ | h | between a preceding stressed and a following unstressed vowel | ∅ | cf. "vehement, annihilate" |
after x | exhibitor | |||
/n/ | n | before velars /k/ (c, ch, k, q) and /ɡ/g | /ŋ/ | incubator, fungus |
/s/ | s | between two vowels | /z/ | miser, Cæsar, Jesus |
between a vowel and a voiced consonant | plasma, presbyter | |||
after a voiced consonant at the end of a word | lens, Mars | |||
/ks/ | x | initially | /z/ | Xanthippe |
in the prefix ex- before a vowel or (silent) h in a stressed syllable | /ɡz/ | exemplar, exhibitor | ||
The change of intervocalic /s/ to /z/ is common but not universal. Voicing is more common in Latin than in Greek words, and never occurs in the common Greek ending -sis, where s is always voiceless: basis, crisis, genesis.
The most common type of phonemic change in Anglo-Latin is palatalization. Anglo-Latin reflects the results of no less than four palatalization processes. The first of these occurred in Late Latin, the second in Proto-Gallo-Romance, the third and fourth within the history of English. While the first two palatalizations are universally used in variants of Anglo-Latin, the third and especially the fourth are incompletely observed in different varieties of Anglo-Latin, leading to some variant pronunciations.
Some of the occasions on which palatalizations 3 and 4 fail to take effect should be noted:
Summary
Palatalization | Sound affected | Spelling | Environment | Resulting sound | Examples |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | /t/ | t | when not initial, following s, t, or x, and before the semivowel i | /s/ | annunciator (from annuntiator) /s/ usually changes to /ʃ/ by Palatalization 3 |
2 | /k/ | c | before front vowels e, æ, œ, i, y | /s/ | circus, census, Cynthia, foci, proscenium, scintilla, successor |
/ɡ/ | g | /dʒ/ | Gemini, regimen, algæ, fungi, gymnasium | ||
3 | /s/ | c, t (sc, ss) | when not initial, before semivowel i and e | /ʃ/ | acacia, rosacea, species, inertia, ratio fascia, cassia |
/ks/ | x | /kʃ/ | cf. "complexion" | ||
/t/ | t | /tʃ/ | cf. "question, Christian, bestial, Attius" | ||
/z/ | s | /ʒ/ | Asia, ambrosia, nausea, Persia | ||
4 | /d/ | d | when not initial, before (usually unstressed) open u/ju/, /jə/ | /dʒ/ | educator, cf. also gradual |
/s/ | s, ss | /ʃ/ | cf. "censure, fissure" | ||
/ks/ | x | /kʃ/ | cf. "luxury" | ||
/t/ | t | /tʃ/ | spatula | ||
/z/ | s | /ʒ/ | cf. "usual" |
See further the section on the "semivowel" below.
Following all of the above sound changes except palatalizations 3 and 4, "geminate" sequences of two identical sounds (often but not always double letters) were degeminated, or simplified to a single sound. That is, bb, dd, ff, ll, mm, nn, pp, rr, ss, tt became pronounced /bdflmnprst/. However, for the purposes of determining whether a syllable is open or closed, these single consonants continue to act as consonant clusters.
Other notable instances involving degemination include:
The following combinations, derived from Greek, are also pronounced as single consonants:
The simple vowels of Anglo-Latin (a, æ, e, ei, i, o, œ, u, y) can each have several phonetic values dependent upon their stress, position in the word, and syllable structure. Knowing which value to use requires an explanation of two syllabic characteristics, openness and stress.
Openness is a quality of syllables, by which they may be either open, semiopen, semiclosed, or fully closed.
Fully closed syllables are those in which the vowel in the middle of the syllable (the vocalic nucleus) is followed by at least one consonant, which ends or "closes" the syllable. Vowels in fully closed syllables appear:
Semiclosed syllables are closed, unstressed syllables that had been closed and became open due to the merger of two following consonants of the same sound. For the purpose of determining vowel reduction in initial unstressed syllables they count as open.
Semiopen syllables are syllables that had been closed and unstressed, and that are followed by a sequence of consonants that can stand at the beginning of a syllable. Since instances of obstruents +r or l are already considered open, semiopen syllables are practically restricted to instances of s + obstruent, bl, and in some cases perhaps tl. Vowels in initial semiopen syllables may be treated as open for all purposes except for determining the value of u, which is still closed in semiopen syllables.
See further the section on initial unstressed syllables below.
Open syllables are those in which the nucleus is followed:
Stress is another characteristic of syllables. In Anglo-Latin, it is marked by greater tension, higher pitch, lengthening of vowel, and (in certain cases) changes in vowel quality. Its exact concomitants in Classical Latin are uncertain. In Classical Latin the main, or primary stress is predictable, with a few exceptions, based on the following criteria:
Primary stress can therefore be determined in cases where the penult is either closed or contains a diphthong. When it contains a vowel that may have been either short or long in Classical Latin, stress is ambiguous. Since Anglo-Latin does not distinguish short from long vowels, stress becomes a lexical property of certain words and affixes. The fact that decorum is stressed on the penult, and exodus on the antepenult, is a fact about each of these words that must be memorized separately (unless one is already familiar with the Classical quantities, and in the former case, additionally with the fact that decus -ŏris n. with short -o- syllable became in late Latin decus/decor -ōris m. with long -o- syllable: Dómine, diléxi decórem domus tuæ).
Secondary stress is dependent upon the placement of the primary stress. It appears only in words of four or more syllables. There may be more than one secondary stress in a word; however, stressed syllables may not be adjacent to each other, so there is always at least one unstressed syllable between the secondary and primary stress. Syllables containing semivowel e or i are never stressed.
Secondary stress in words with three or more syllables before the primary stress is less predictable. Such words include those of five syllables with penult primary stress, and all words of six syllables in length or longer. The following generalizations about such long words may be made:
Unstressed syllables are all others. They are always adjacent to a stressed syllable; that is, there can never be more than two unstressed syllables in a row, and that only when the first one follows a stressed syllable.
Several sound-changes in Anglo-Latin are due to the presence of the "semivowel", an alteration of certain front vowels. Originally ordinary vowels, they acquired at different points in history the value of the glide /j/ (a y-sound like that in English canyon). Subsequently, their value has fluctuated through history between a consonant and a vowel; the term "semivowel" thus reflects the intermediate historical as well as phonetic position of this sound. The environment in which the semivowel was produced was as follows:
Examples of words where e, i, y became semivowels include: miscellanea, chamæleon, nausea, geranium, rabies, Aries, acacia, ratio, fascia, inertia, halcyon, polyanthus, semiosis, mediator, Æthiopia, Ecclesiastes.
The effects of the semivowel include the following:
The most notable distinction between Anglo-Latin and other varieties of Latin is in the treatment of the vowels. In Anglo-Latin, all original distinctions between long and short vowels have been obliterated; there is no distinction between the treatment of a and ā, etc., for instance. However, the subsequent development of the vowels depended to a large degree upon Latin word stress (which was preserved nearly unchanged in the medieval period), and as this was in part dependent upon vowel length, in certain cases Latin vowel length contrasts have been preserved as contrasts in both stress and quality. However, the immediate governing factor is not length but stress: short vowels that were stressed for various reasons are treated exactly like stressed long vowels.
In addition to the merger of long and short vowels, other vowel mergers took place:
The merger of æ and œ with e was commonly recognized in writing. Sometimes forms written with æ and œ coexist with forms with e; in other cases the form with e has superseded the diphthong in Anglo-Latin. Consider the following:
The following words are usually spelled with e, though they originally had æ:
In other cases, particularly names, the forms with the diphthongs are the only correct spelling, e.g., ægis, Cæsar, Crœsus, Œdipus, onomatopœia, pharmacopœia, Phœbe, phœnix, Piræus, sub pœna.
The sequences ei, æi, œi (distinguished in writing and pronunciation from ej, the vowel followed by a consonant, as in Sejanus) are sometimes retained in spelling preceding a vowel. In such cases the sequence is invariably pronounced as a simple vowel, sometimes i (as in meiosis, pronounced as if miosis), sometimes e (as in Cassiopeia, Deianira, onomatopœia, pronounced as if Cassiopea, Deanira, onomatopea), and sometimes either (Pleiades, commonly pronounced as if Pleades or Pliades).
The result was a system of five vowels, a, e, i, o, u. These would subsequently split, according to their environment, into long, short, and (eventually) unstressed variants; and these variants would eventually also be altered based on neighboring sounds. However, in phonemic terms, Anglo-Latin still has only five vowels, with multiple allophones.
In addition, there were the diphthongs, ai, oi, ui, au and eu. Of these, ai and au eventually monophthongized, eu merged with the open variant of u, and yi merged with the "long" i. Only oi and ui remained as true diphthongs, but both are extremely rare.
The vowels a, e, i, o each have three primary variants: long, short, and reduced. Each of these may, in turn, exhibit allophonic variation based on features of its phonetic environment, including whether it is stressed, whether it is in an open or closed syllable, where it is positioned in the word, and what consonants are next to it. One of the most common environmental causes of vowel alteration is the presence of a following r. Vowels altered by a following "r" are called "r-colored".
This is the default value for vowels, observed:
All short vowels have variants colored by a following r sound when the r is followed by a different consonant (not r) or by the end of the word. In addition, there is a variant of short a that only appears after a /w/ sound – chiefly found in the sound qu/kw/. This is a relatively recent phonetic development in English and Anglo-Latin, so it wasn't present in earlier stages of Anglo-Latin.
Short vowels | IPA | Type 1 | Type 2 | Type 3 | Type 4 | Type 5 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a | /æ/ | pax | mantis, pallor, malefactor | camera, marathon, calculus | anæsthesia, saturnalia | antenna, magnificat |
ar | /ɑːr/ | par, Mars | argus, catharsis | arbiter, Barbara | arbitrator, pharmacopœia | narcissus, sarcophagus |
e | /ɛ/ | rex | sector, error, præceptor, interregnum | Gemini, Penelope | memorandum, impedimenta | pentathlon, September, spectator |
æ | quæstor | Æschylus, diæresis | prædecessor, æquilibrium | |||
œ | Œdipus | |||||
i | /ɪ/ | nil | isthmus, lictor, cirrus, narcissus | simile, tibia, antithesis, Sirius, delirium | simulacrum, administrator, hippopotamus | scintilla, dictator |
y | lynx, Scylla, Charybdis | chrysalis, synthesis, Thucydides, Syria | symbiosis | hysteria | ||
er | /ɜːr/ | per | vertex, Nerva | terminus, hyperbola | perpetrator | Mercator, persona |
ir | circus, Virgo | Virginia | ||||
yr | thyrsus | myrmidon | ||||
w-colored a | /ɒ/ | quantum | ||||
o | non | impostor, horror | optimum, conifer, metropolis | propaganda, operator | October, thrombosis | |
w-colored ar | /ɔːr/ | quartus | ||||
or | cortex, forceps | formula | cornucopia | torpedo |
Exceptionally, monosyllables ending in es are pronounced with the rhyme /iːz/, e.g., pes, res. This pronunciation is borrowed from that of -es used as an ending.
Exceptions to the pronunciation of short y generally involve prefixed elements beginning with hy- in an open syllable, such as hydro- and hypo-; these are always pronounced with a long y, e.g. hydrophobia, hypochondria. This pronunciation is the result of hypercorrection; they used to be pronounced with a short /ɪ/, as is still the case in the word "hypocrite" and (for some speakers and formerly commonly) hypochondria.
Prefixes may also behave in anomalous ways:
Long vowels are those that historically were lengthened. By virtue of subsequent sound changes, most of these are now diphthongs, and none is distinguished by vowel length—however, the term "long" for these vowels is traditional. "Long" vowels appear in three types of environments:
"Long" vowels | IPA | Type 1 | Type 2 | Type 3 | Type 4 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
a | /eɪ/ | a, qua | crater, lumbago | radius, rabies | chaos, aorta, phaëthon |
ar | /ɛər/ | pharos | area, caries | ||
e | /iː/ | e, re | ethos, lemur, Venus | genius | idea, creator |
æ | Cæsar | anæmia, chamæleon | æon, mæander | ||
œ | amœba, Crœsus | diarrhœa | |||
ei | Deianira, Pleiades | ||||
er or ær | /ɪər/ | serum, Ceres, æra | bacterium, criterion, materia | ||
i | /aɪ/ | i, pi | item, Tigris, saliva, iris, horizon | (i remains short, e.g. trivia) | miasma, hiatus, calliope |
y | hydra, python, papyrus | (y remains short, e.g. Polybius) | hyæna, myopia | ||
o | /oʊ/ | O, pro | bonus, toga | odium, encomium, opprobrium | boa, Chloe, cooperator |
or | /ɔər/ | chorus, forum, thorax | emporium, euphoria |
Reduced vowels appear in unstressed syllables, except for:
A variety of possible realizations are available for open, semiopen, and semiclosed initial unstressed syllables, including (for e and i) long, short, and reduced variants. Fully closed initial unstressed syllables are always short.
Vowel | IPA | Examples |
---|---|---|
a | /ə/ | amœba, anemone, ascesis |
e | /ᵻ/* | Elysium, emeritus, epitome, erotica |
æ | ænigma | |
œ | œsophagus | |
i | /aɪ/ | idea |
y | hyperbola, hypothesis | |
o | /ᵿ/** | Olympus |
* A "schwi". It generally conflates with /ɪ/ in RP and with schwa in Australia. Directly before another vowel it may be the 'HAPPY' vowel.
** A rounded schwa. It has a w-like offglide before another vowel the way /oʊ/ does, but otherwise in many dialects it conflates with schwa.
Vowel | IPA | Examples |
---|---|---|
a | /ə/ | papyrus, placebo, saliva, basilica |
e | /ᵻ/* | December, thesaurus |
æ | Mæcenas, pæninsula, phænomenon | |
i | /aɪ,ᵻ/ | criteria, tribunal, minutiæ, cicada |
y | lyceum, psychosis, synopsis, chrysanthemum | |
o | /ᵿ/** | November, rotunda, colossus, proscenium |
The variation in the value of the initial open unstressed vowel is old. Two different types of variation can be distinguished; the older use of a "long" vowel for i, y, o (and their variants); and more recent variations in the value of the reduced vowel.
No completely general rule can be laid down for the appearance of an initial unstressed long vowel, although such vowels must have appeared before the shortening of geminate consonants, as they are restricted to fully open syllables. The most general tendency is for long vowels to appear when i and y are either preceded by no consonant or by h, e.g., idea, isosceles, hyperbola, hypothesis. The prefixes in and syn never have long vowels: inertia, synopsis. I and y also tend to be short when the next syllable contains an i or y, short or long: militia, divisor.
O is a little less likely to appear with a long value in this location; or, at any rate, it is harder to distinguish the long value from the reduced vowel.
Unstressed e and i in open syllables had merged by the early 17th century; their reduced reflex is often transcribed [ə], but by many speakers is still pronounced as a high front lax vowel, distinct from the [ə] derived from a, here transcribed ⟨ᵻ⟩. For such speakers, the first syllables in Demeter and Damascus are pronounced differently.
Unstressed o, also often transcribed [ə], is by many speakers pronounced with considerable lip-rounding, here transcribed ⟨ᵿ⟩.
Vowel | IPA | Examples |
---|---|---|
a | /ə/ | addendum, appendix, calliope, farrago |
e | /ɛ,ᵻ/ | ellipsis, Ecclesiastes, erratum |
i | /ɪ,ᵻ/ | Illyria, cf. cirrhosis |
y | syllepsis | |
o | /ə/ | collector, oppressor, opprobrium, possessor |
The partially closed initial unstressed vowels began as short vowels, but were later reduced.
These are the same sounds as in the preceding chart, but without the option of the "long" vowels and much less rounding of the o.
proscenium does not fall in this group, apparently because felt to be pro+scenium.
All vowels in medial unstressed syllables are reduced to /ə/ or /ɪ/, regardless of whether they are in open or closed syllables.
Vowel | IPA | Examples |
---|---|---|
a | /ə/ | diabetes, emphasis, syllabus, diagnosis, melancholia |
e | /ᵻ/* | impetus, phaethon, malefactor, commentator, Alexander |
i | animal, legislator | |
y | platypus, analysis, apocrypha | |
o | /ə/ | hyperbola, demonstrator |
Vr | /ər/ | interceptor, superficies |
The pronunciation of the letter u does not depend upon stress, but rather upon whether the syllable in which it appears is open or closed. There are no "long" and "short" variants of either type of u, but there are reduced and r-colored variants of both types.
The underlying sound of open u is /juː/; it shares developments with the homophonous diphthong eu, which can however appear in closed syllables.
The sound [j] in /juː/ and its variants is deleted in various environments:
After the following consonants when they precede u in an initial, final, or stressed syllable:
In some dialects, particularly of American English, /j/ is deleted after all dental/alveolar consonants when they precede u in an initial, final or stressed syllable:
/j/ is not deleted in the following environments:
Open u | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Environment | Examples with /j/ | Examples without /j/ | ||
in stressed syllables | /juː/ | humor, uterus, tribunal, euthanasia | /uː/ | rumor, verruca, junior, Jupiter |
in stressed syllables, r-colored | /jʊər/ | furor | /ʊər/ | juror |
in unstressed initial syllables | /jᵿ/ | musæum, urethra, euphoria, eureka | /ᵿ/ | superior |
in medial unstressed syllables | /jᵿ/ | calculus, nebula, spatula | /ᵿ/ | |
in unstressed final syllables | /juː/ | impromptu, situ | /uː/ | passu |
in unstressed hiatus | /jᵿ/ | amanuensis, innuendo |
Closed u appears only in closed syllables, except for instances of the prefix sub- before a vowel. It has reduced and r-colored variants, as shown below. r-coloration only appears when the r is followed by a different consonant (not r) or the end of the word.
Closed u | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Environment | Examples | |||
/ʌ/ in stressed syllables | sulfur, alumnus, ultimatum | |||
/ɜːr/ in r-colored stressed syllables | laburnum, murmur, præcursor | |||
/ʌ/ in initial fully closed unstressed syllables | ulterior, omnibus | |||
/ə/ in initial open or semi-closed unstressed syllables | suburbia, curriculum | |||
/ə/ in medial unstressed syllables | illustrator | |||
/ər/ in all r-colored unstressed syllables | murmur, sequitur, saturnalia |
Diphthongs in Anglo-Latin are distinguished from simple vowels by having no long or short variants, regardless of position or syllable type. The only diphthongs that are at all common are au and eu. For variations in the pronunciation of the latter, see Open u. Au is, rarely, reduced in an unstressed syllable to [ə]: Augustus pronounced as if "Agustus". Such words may be pronounced with the full value of the diphthong, however.
Diphthongs | IPA | Examples |
---|---|---|
ai | /eɪ/ | Achaia, Maia, Gaius |
au | /ɔː/ | aura, pauper, nausea, autochthon, aurora, glaucoma, mausoleum |
ei | /aɪ/ | deinde, meiosis |
eu | /juː/ | neuter, euthanasia, zeugma |
oi | /ɔɪ/ | coitus, paranoia |
ou | /aʊ/ | boustrophedon |
ui | /juː.j/ | cuius, hui, huius |
yi | /aɪ/ | harpyia |
Note that ui is generally disyllabic, as in fruc.tu.i, va.cu.i, tu.i. The monosyllabic words cui and huic were traditionally pronounced /kaɪ/ and /haɪk/.
In general, ua, ue, ui, uo, and uu come immediately after q, g, or s. [8] However, when they occur in the same syllable, as in suavitas, questus, anguis, aliquot, and equus, they are not considered diphthongs (except in the exceptional pronunciations of cui, huic, and the above examples). [9] Accordingly, when these letter combinations occur in the penultimate syllable, it is not necessarily stressed (e.g., équitas, not equítas). Note that their second vowel may become reduced, r-colored, or take on a different quantity even in a monosyllable.
The pronunciation of the final syllables of polysyllabic words do not always correspond to what might be expected from the constituent phonemes. Some endings also have more than one pronunciation, depending upon the degree of stress given to the ending.
Three types of endings can be distinguished:
The first class consists of vowels alone, i.e. -a, -e, -æ, -i, -o, -u, -y. In this class, the vowels are generally long, but -a is always /ə/. [10]
Letter | IPA | Examples |
---|---|---|
a | /ə/ | circa, fauna, mania, quota |
e | /iː/ | ante, epitome, posse |
æ | algæ, larvæ, vertebræ | |
i, y | /aɪ/ | alibi, Gemini, moly |
o | /oʊ/ | ego, Pluto, torpedo |
u | /juː/ | (in) situ |
Words deriving from Greek long -ê (η) end in /iː/ unless assimilated, such as simile ending in /i/ (the 'HAPPY' vowel).
In the words mihi [ citation needed ], tibi, sibi, by an old tradition, the final i was pronounced like final e above (i.e., as if spelled mihe, tibe, sibe).
A late and purely academic pronunciation distinguished final -ā from -a by pronouncing the former like "long a", /eɪ/: for instance, Oxford professor A. D. Godley rhymed Rusticā and "day". That this was not the usual pronunciation can be told from such forms as circa, infra, extra, in absentia, sub pœna, all of which have an originally long final vowel: circā, sub pœnā, etc. This use is distinct from the older tradition (in use in the 17th-18th centuries) had made all final a's "long", regardless of their Latin length.
The second class consists of vowels followed by consonant clusters such as ns, nt, nx, ps, x. In this class, the vowels are always short, except for u, which may be reduced to [ə].
Letter | IPA | Examples |
---|---|---|
a | /æ/ | climax, phalanx |
e | /ɛ/ | biceps, index |
i | /ɪ/ | matrix, phœnix |
o | /ɒ/ | Cyclops |
u | /ə/ | exeunt, Pollux |
y | /ɪ/ | pharynx, oryx |
The third class consists of vowels followed by the consonants l, m, n, r, s, t. The treatment of these endings is inconsistent. Generalizations include:
The remaining endings are: -at, -em, -en, -es, -et, -im, -is, -it, -on, -os, -ot. Of these, -em, -im, -is, -it, -on, -ot have two possible pronunciations, one with a short vowel and one with /ə/. Final -es and -ies are alike pronounced /iːz/. [11] Final -eus, when derived from Greek -ευς -eus (as in Proteus) rather than from -εος -eos with the -os changed to -us in Latin, may be pronounced as a single syllable with a diphthong (juːs), or as two syllables with a long (though unstressed) e followed by -us (iː.əs). However, even when pronounced as two syllables, -eus counts as a single syllable for the purpose of determining vowel length – that is, the syllable preceding the -eus ending is considered the penult, just as happens in derivatives ending in -ian – though the placement of the stress shifts. E.g. ἸλιονεύςĪlioneus /ɪliˈoʊniːəs,ɪˈlaɪənjuːs/ il-ee-OH-nee-əs, i-LYE-ə-nyoos.
Ending | IPA | Examples |
---|---|---|
at | /æt/ | magnificat |
/ət/ | fiat | |
em | /ɛm/ | idem, ibidem |
/əm/ | item, tandem | |
en | /ən/ | lichen, semen |
es | /iːz/ | Achilles, appendices, fæces |
ies | rabies, species | |
et | /ɛt/ | videlicet, scilicet, quodlibet |
eus | /juːs/ | Perseus, Nereus |
/iːəs/ | ||
im | /ɪm/ | passim |
/əm/ | interim | |
is | /ᵻs/* | ægis, crisis, hypothesis, basis |
it | /ᵻt/* | exit, deficit |
on | /ɒn/ | icon, marathon |
/ən/ | bison, siphon, horizon | |
os | /ɒs/ | chaos, pathos, pharos |
ot | /ɒt/ | aliquot |
/ət/ |
* The vowel of -is, -it is a "schwi". It generally conflates with /ɪ/ in RP and with schwa in Australia.
This last pronunciation of -os is the expected one; however, in the masculine accusative plural, where the ending is historically -ōs, the academic prescription was the pronunciation /oʊs/. [12] Such an ending is not found in English loan words or proper names.
English adjectives formed from Greek and Latin roots often end in a suffix -an or -ic added to the oblique stem, sometimes retaining a preceding thematic vowel. These produce generally predictable sound changes in the stem though, depending on its source or simply due to confusion, English -ean may be either stressed or unstressed. The first derives from the Latin adjectival suffix -ānus, though it has far wider application in English than in Latin. (Pythian, for example, translates the Latin adjective Pythius.) The other suffix, -ic, derives from the Greek adjectival suffix -ικος -ĭkos. [13]
The fact that these suffixes are added to the oblique stem is relevant with words of the third declension whose stems end in a consonant that alters or disappears in the nominative case, as is apparent in such English noun–adjective pairs as Pallas ~ Palladian, Mars ~ Martian, Venus ~ Venerian, and indeed from non-adjectival derivatives of these words such as 'palladium'. Some roots have more than one oblique stem, in which case they may have more than one adjectival form in English.
The forms of these suffixes depends on the first vowel of the nominal suffix in Latin or Greek. The resulting forms are carried over into Latin from Greek, and into English from Latin. English adjectives in -ean, where the e is inherited from the Greek, are stressed on the suffix, but there are also adjectives in -ean where the e originates in Latin, and those are not stressed.
Greek noun | Greek adj. | Latin adj. | English adj. |
---|---|---|---|
-ο- -o- | -ιος -ĭos | -ĭus | -ian |
-η- -ē- | -ειος -eios | -ēus, -eius, -īus | -éan |
-α- -a- | -αιος -aios | -aeus (-æus) | -aean, -éan |
-ω- -ō- (-ῳ -ōi) | -ωος -ōos (-ῳος -ōios) | -ōus (-ōius) | -óan (-óian) |
For example,
Because the i of the suffix -ian makes an exception to the usual shortening of antepenultimate vowels, forms such as 'Samian' above are pronounced with a long stressed vowel.
Many Greek nouns ending in -o- take adjectives like those ending in -ē- instead, and some may take either form, in which case there may be two adjectives in English. An example is Sisyphus: [13]
In the opposite direction, ē-vowel Aristotelēs produces 'Aristotḗlian' alongside expected 'Aristoteléan'.
The final iota subscript in Greek feminine words ending in -ῳ -ōi is frequently omitted in Latin, – if an 'i' appears in English it may be taken directly from the Greek, – but words that end in plain -ω -ō in Greek may also have Greek adjectives in -ōios if the 'i' was historically present.
There is another suffix spelled -ean in English, but this one unstressed. It corresponds to the unstressed Latin adjectival suffix -ĕus and does not derive from Greek. An example is Latin Herculēs > Latin adj. Herculĕus > English 'Hercúlean', alongside Greek Hēraklēs > Greek adj. Hērakleios > Latin Hēraclēus/Hēraclīus > English 'Heracléan'. The stress assignment of the 'Herculean' has been affected by 'Heraclean' (or perhaps simply by the ambiguity of having two suffixes spelled '-ean'), so the mixed form 'Herculéan' is now also heard. [14]
The Greek suffix -ικος -ĭkos replaces the vowels of nominal endings apart from retaining a or ō, which will be stressed in English. Stress assignment (and the corresponding vowel quality) of English follows the Latin, as though the suffix were -icus in English as well and the last syllable of the stem were the antepenult when it English it's actually the penult. Thus English 'Homeric' is pronounced with a short stressed penultimate e, when in other English words from Latin an e in that position would be pronounced long. (Cf. botanic, which has the same stressed 'a' and same vowel quality as botanical.)
Greek noun | Greek adj. | Latin adj. | English adj. |
---|---|---|---|
-ο- -o- | -ικος -ĭkos | -ĭcus | -ic |
-η- -ē- | |||
-α- -a- | -αικος -aikos | -aĭcus | -áic |
-ω- -ō- | -ωικος -ōikos | -ōĭcus | -óic |
For example,
Thus 'Aristotelian' is pronounced with a long e, but 'Aristotelic' with a short e.
A number of Greek nouns ending in ē (which historically is a long ā) form adjectives in -aic, such as 'Cyrenaic' (Greek Kȳrēnē > adj. Kȳrēnaikos > Latin Cȳrēnaicus).
![]() | This article's factual accuracy is disputed .(March 2011) |
Latin as traditionally pronounced by English speakers is part of the living history of spoken Latin through medieval French into English.
Three stages of development of Anglo-Latin can thus be distinguished:
Note: The English pronunciation of Latin varies with accent as much as English itself, as the two's phonological systems are inseparably connected. For convenience's sake, the list below will end with approximately a received pronunciation accent. As the traditional pronunciation of Latin has evolved alongside English since the Middle Ages, the page detailing English's phonological evolution from Middle English (in this case, from the Middle-English-Latin pronunciation roughly midway through the 1400-1600 section) can give a better idea of what exactly has happened, and this is just an overview.
Latin from the period when its orthography and grammar became standardized through to the pronunciation changes of Late Latin, while it was still a living language. Changes that took place in this period included:
Latin spoken in the context of Gallo-Romance and French from approximately the 6th to the 11th-12th centuries. During this period, Latin became a primarily written language, separated from the ordinary spoken language of the people. While it escaped many of the changes of pronunciation and grammar of Gallo-Romance, it did share a few of the changes of the spoken language. This was for the most part a period of stability. Changes in this period included:
Latin spoken in the context of English from the 11th/12th centuries to the present. This last stage provides the greatest and most complicated number of changes. It starts with the displacement of the native pronunciation of Latin under the Anglo-Saxon kings with that used in the north of France, around the time of the Norman conquest in 1066. The English and French pronunciations of Latin were probably identical down to the 13th century, but subsequently Latin as spoken in England began to share in specifically English sound changes. Latin, thus naturalized, acquired a distinctly English sound, increasingly different from the pronunciation of Latin in France or elsewhere on the Continent. For example, Arthur, Prince of Wales and Catherine of Aragon corresponded for two years in Latin, but when they met in 1501 they found that they could not understand each other's spoken conversation, because they had learned different Latin pronunciations. [15]
Some phases of development in this third stage can be reconstructed:
A similar situation occurred in other regions, where the pronunciation of the local language influenced the pronunciation of Latin, eventually being replaced with reconstructed classical pronunciation. In German-speaking areas, traditional Germanized pronunciation of Latin is discussed at Deutsche Aussprache des Lateinischen (in German), with reconstructed classical pronunciation at Schulaussprache des Lateinischen (in German).
In Rattigan's play Separate Tables the following conversation takes place between Major Pollock, who has been lying about his background, and Mr Fowler, a retired schoolmaster:
In Goodbye, Mr. Chips , Chips says: "Well, I—umph—I admit that I don't agree with the new pronunciation. I never did. Umph—a lot of nonsense, in my opinion. Making boys say 'Kickero' at school when— umph—for the rest of their lives they'll say 'Cicero'—if they ever—umph—say it at all. And instead of 'vicissim'— God bless my soul—you'd make them say, 'We kiss 'im'! Umph— umph!"
In a fictional case Rex v. Venables and Others in A. P. Herbert's Uncommon Law , after a barrister uses phrases such as "ooltrah weerayze" (ultra vires) and "preemah fakiay" (prima facie) with the new Classics pronunciation he was taught at school, the Lord Chief Justice says "You are not to be blamed, Mr. Wick. But I am bound to make it clear to you, to the rest of your gallant generation and to the generations that come after, that His Majesty's judges will not permit the speaking of the Latin tongue after that fashion in the King's Courts. I cannot hear you, Mr. Wick, for the very good reason that I cannot understand you. We are using different languages. ... The bitter conclusion is, Mr. Wick, that you must go away and learn to pronounce the Latin tongue correctly, according to the immemorial practice of your profession."
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link). History and advice on singing Latin written or performed in the British Isles, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal.editions:97Ks2reWxwAC.Although this handbook is mostly devoted to establishing the position of the accent in Classical names used in English, it also includes an essay setting out some of the rules and regularities in the Anglo-Latin pronunciation.
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 the Romance languages.
Y, or y, is the twenty-fifth and penultimate letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. According to some authorities, it is the sixth vowel letter of the English alphabet. Its name in English is wye, plural wyes.
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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Irish phonology varies from dialect to dialect; there is no standard pronunciation of Irish. Therefore, this article focuses on phenomena shared by most or all dialects, and on the major differences among the dialects. Detailed discussion of the dialects can be found in the specific articles: Ulster Irish, Connacht Irish, and Munster Irish.
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Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar phonological system. Among other things, most dialects have vowel reduction in unstressed syllables and a complex set of phonological features that distinguish fortis and lenis consonants.
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