Latin I/Pronunciation
This is a very basic guide to Latin pronunciation. You will get plenty of help in the lessons with audio files.
The good news is that Latin is pronounced quite consistently. The sounds are quite easy to reproduce. As a general guide, Latin would have sounded more like modern Spanish or Italian than English.
Latin is however spoken with two rather different systems, widely called "Classical" and "Ecclesiastical". You should choose according to your needs and preferences. Classical is more widely taught in lessons in Anglophone countries. Ecclesiastical pronunciation is common in Italy's schools.
Vowels
| Sounds | Audio | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| a, ā e, ē i, ī o, ō u, ū y, ȳ |
All the vowels together |
| Vowel | Latin example | Classical[1] | Ecclesiastical[2] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sounds like | Listen | Sounds like | Listen | ||
| a | ballista | father | father | ||
| ā | fābula | ||||
| e | September | met | met | ||
| ē | mēnsis | ||||
| i | dictātor | machine | machine | ||
| ī | dīvīsor | ||||
| o | bonus | dog | dog | ||
| ō | sōl | ||||
| u | lupus | rude | rude | ||
| ū | lūna | ||||
| y | mysticus | über[3] | meet | ||
| ȳ | Dionȳsus | ||||
| All the vowels | |||||
Practice
Choose your preferred pronunciation method: Classical or Ecclesiastical. Then attempt to pronounce the following words before listening to them. Don't worry about the correct pronunciation of the consonants or syllable stresses at this point; just pay attention to the vowels.
| Word | Classical | Ecclesiastical |
|---|---|---|
| secundus | ||
| proximitās | ||
| perpendiculum | ||
| dīvīnitās | ||
| Hēraclītus | ||
| mīrāculum | ||
| amygdalum | ||
| ūmidus | ||
| pila | ||
| pīla | ||
| papȳrus | ||
| potēns | ||
| pōtus | ||
| locus | ||
| lōcustā |
Diphthongs
Two vowels together usually are pronounced as distinct vowels. Thus, the word radiī is pronounced ra•di•ī. However, some combinations have a pronunciation in which the first vowel glides into the second vowel: they are diphthongs.
| Diphthong | Latin example | Classical[4] | Ecclesiastical[5] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sounds like | Listen | Sounds like | Listen | ||
| ae | paenīnsula | by | Pronounce as ē | ||
| au | automaton | how | how | ||
| eu[6] | Eurōpa | Pronounce as eū | Pronounce as eū | ||
| oe | oeconōmia | foil | Pronounce as ē | ||
| ua, ue, ui, uo after q or ng | aequilībrium | kw + vowel | kw + vowel | ||
There are a few exceptions, such as the word āēr, which you might see as aër in Vicipaedia or āër in other books. The marks indicate that the vowels are pronounced separately as ā•ēr, not as the diphthong ae. When we encounter other such words, we'll point them out, otherwise these tables would get very complicated very quickly.
More information
For a much fuller version of this guide, see this Wikibooks page.
Notes
- ↑ Janson, p. 5
- ↑ de Angelis, pp. 8-9
- ↑ English has no equivalent, so we used a German word. You can listen to the basic sound of this vowel on Wikipedia.
- ↑ Wheelock, p. xli
- ↑ de Angelis, pp. 9-11
- ↑ If eu occurs before the last letter in a word, as in -eus or -eum, then this is not a diphthong because the two vowels belong to different syllables: -e•us and -e•um. This will become much more obvious when you get to the chapter on the first and second declension.