Do we actually know how the ancient Romans pronounced Latin words? (continued)
Georgina Skipper
Weymouth, Dorset, UK
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The evidence for the hard “c” sound in Latin is strong, but more interesting is the reason for the shift to the soft “c” before “e” and “i” in modern languages.
These vowels are formed further forwards in the mouth and “k” is formed at the back. We may be seeing the same sort of thing happening in speech by people from Liverpool, UK, where “k” is pronounced further forwards, with a hiss, and seems to be on a path to becoming an “s”. This applies to soft and to hard “g”, which is the voiced version of “k”.
The evidence for the hard 'c' sound in Latin is strong, but more interesting is the shift to the soft 'c' before 'e' and 'i' seen today
However, I can’t find any evidence that the ancient Greeks had a “v” sound, so they may have rendered the Latin “v” as their “w” because it was closest to that, not because it is what that actually sounded like.
All modern Latinate languages seem to manage without a “w” (French people typically pronounce it “v”), using other combinations with “u” for the “w” sound and pronouncing “v” as “v” or “b”. This is complicated by the fact that the Romans used “v” as a vowel as well as a consonant. It is possible that the sound they used was more like in Punjabi, somewhere between the “v” and “w”.
Jon Arch
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK
The respondents nicely explained how we know how the Romans pronounced consonants, but said nothing about vowels.
I was taught to pronounce “i” as in “see” (as in modern Italian and Spanish) and “ae” as in “eye”, but the English-speaking world has largely swapped round these pronunciations. It has also added a third for “ae”, so the “ae” in algae or vertebrae is sometimes pronounced as in “hay”. Could previous respondent Eric Kvaalen now offer his insight on Roman vowels, please?
John Healey
Semaphore, South Australia
Further to the pronunciation of Latin words, perhaps those who use plural Latin words ending in “i”, such as stimuli, fungi and loci, might take note that these words should be pronounced to rhyme with “bee”, not “eye”.
And the many names in the Linnaean taxanomical system that end in “ae”, such as Leguminosae, Scincidae and Formicinae, should be pronounced to rhyme with “eye”, not “bee” or “day”. Interested scientists may consult the summary at the end of W. Sidney Allen’s Vox Latina: A guide to the pronunciation of classical Latin, the book recommended by your correspondent Connaire Kensit.
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