Pronunciation - Words & Names

[Caius Maxentius]

There are a bunch of words and names I've read, but never heard. Does anyone know how they're pronounced, and what syllable gets the emphasis?

 

In particular: aedile, mos maiorum, Odovacer/Odoacer, Stilicho, Cassivalaunus.

 

With certain plural words, like "frumentarii" is the last syllable an "ee" sound or is it "ee-eye?"

[Sextus Roscius]

Some will correct me if I'm wrong on these but

 

aedile= eye-dial (as in sundial)

 

mos maiorum= mos (as in mosque) may (as in mayor) or (as in orbit) um

 

Odovacer= Odo-wa-ker (the -er sound in -ker is pronoucend like air)

 

Stilicho= Sstee (make the long -ss sound, not a -z sound) lee-cho

 

Cassivalaunus= Kassee-wal-aun(as in aunt)-us

 

I'm sure people with more skill will come back and correct me, I'm not good at doing word pronounciation on paper...

[Lost_Warrior]

Do you want actual, proper "ancient" pronounciation or modern pronounciation? In most cases, the two are very different (for instance modern Julius Caesar=ancient "yoo-lee-oos kah-hee-zah")

[Sextus Roscius]

LW, that is incorrect, in ancient latin (which is what I gave) an s makes the -ss sound, not a -z sound. Like the S in snake.

[Lost_Warrior]

Oh? Ok. thanks for the correction.

[Lucius Calpurnius Capitolinus]

Sextus, your pronunciation are good, but I would make the following changes:

 

aedile = ah-ay-dee-lay (the ah-ay can be pronounced like the word "eye")

 

stilicho = the "ch" comes from the greek "Chi" (X) and is pronounced with an aspirated hard "c" like this: kho = stee - lee - kho

 

finally, "ii" is pronounced "ee-ee"

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

If you prefer I can scan a page about latin pronunciation from my book?

 

In reality, pronunciation doesn't really matter to the Romans that much as long as you get the idea or message across by use good sentence construction, unless you're a politician.

Edited February 8, 2006 by FLavius Valerius Constantinus

[Sextus Roscius]

Sextus, your pronunciation are good, but I would make the following changes:

 

aedile = ah-ay-dee-lay (the ah-ay can be pronounced like the word "eye")

 

stilicho = the "ch" comes from the greek "Chi" (X) and is pronounced with an aspirated hard "c" like this: kho = stee - lee - kho

 

finally, "ii" is pronounced "ee-ee"

 

Your right, I was running on automatic there.

[Caius Maxentius]

Thanks for these replies!

 

Do you want actual, proper "ancient" pronounciation or modern pronounciation? In most cases, the two are very different.

 

I didn't know about this -- is modern pronounciation roughly the same as ecclesiastical/Catholic Latin? I'm mainly curious about the ancient pronounciation.

 

If you prefer I can scan a page about latin pronunciation from my book?

 

That would be very helpful. Thanks!

[Lucius Calpurnius Capitolinus]

http://tinyurl.com/8f4za

 

This is a decent pronunciation site. I have a great hand out that details how/why we know what we know about classical pronunciation. I'll see if I can find it.

[Andrew Dalby]

Do you want actual, proper "ancient" pronounciation or modern pronounciation? In most cases, the two are very different (for instance modern Julius Caesar=ancient "yoo-lee-oos kah-hee-zah")

 

Another couple of corrections to this: ae is a diphthong, i.e. one syllable, with no 'h' before the 'e', probably sounding something like the y in English 'my'; and a final 'r' has to be pronounced in Latin, though exactly how it was pronounced is another question -- so the final 'h' is wrong. For Caesar try 'ky-sar', I would say.

[docoflove1974]

Another couple of corrections to this: ae is a diphthong, i.e. one syllable, with no 'h' before the 'e', probably sounding something like the y in English 'my'; and a final 'r' has to be pronounced in Latin, though exactly how it was pronounced is another question -- so the final 'h' is wrong. For Caesar try 'ky-sar', I would say.

 

According to what I was taught (by an old Latin professor whose father was an even older Latin professor), final -r was variable, and therefore could be like 'English r' (a retroflex liquid) or a 'Romance r' (an alveolar tap--think Spanish or Italian).

 

Right on the diphthongs: ae sounded kinda like English 'eye'.

 

Final note: all Cs and Gs are meant to be hard--but this changed as early as the 6th century, since this was an early change in the Romance languages--and V sounded like an English W--hence the early confusing in all early Romance languages, and continued confusion of b/v in Spanish.

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

You guys make it seem so complicated.

 

When I was learning Latin in class, all they told me that I needed to know is that c and g are hard sounds. That the U is V when reading, and that there is absolutely no W or J.

 

Also to add, in latin, you would only use the Z and Y for Greek derived words.

 

See, not all that hard.

[Lucius Calpurnius Capitolinus]

Needless to say, the Roman alphabet was designed specifically for the Latin language, thus every sound is represented. This being the case, Latin is extremely easy to pronounce properly once one learns the few simple rules. It is only in cases like dipthongs (which are really just instances where Latin speakers smushed the sound of two vowels into the space of one) and Greek letters (ch, ph, th, etc.) that Romans had to "adjust" their rules.

 

English, being the hodge-podge that it is, does not have the advantage of consistency that Latin does.

[Guest Radius Cuius]

Hi!

Today, people have different kinds of methods to pronouce Latin. The ecclesiastical method is usually used in church services and is base on modern Italian pronunciation. The reconstructed "Classical method" is usually taught in Latin classes, for pronoucing poetry and ancient literatures.

 

Here is the pronunciation in both methods:

 

Classical Ecclesiastical

aedile= ['ai-di-le] ['e:-di-le]

 

mos maiorum= Similar in both methods, [mo:s] [ma:jorum]

 

Odovacer= [odo'waker] [odo'vacher]

 

Stilicho= Similar in both methods, ['stiliko]

 

Cassivalaunus= [kassiwa'launus] [kassiva'launus]

 

Notice that "r" in Latin should be sound like Spanish or Italian (trilled R) no matter where r is in a word, prevent the retroflex r in English.

 

I made a webpage on Latin pronunciation lately, hope this may help a bit:

http://www.melop.net/phlatina/