How to Pronounce Latin

So, you want to speak Latin? The first thing to do is learn how to pronounce Latin! As a preface, there are generally two systems for pronouncing Latin: Classical Latin (mimicking the authentic pronunciation in the Roman Empire around the time of the start of the Christian period) and Ecclesiastical Latin (a more modern pronunciation used in the Catholic Church). I'll detail the pronunciation of each, and then opine about the current state of Latin pronunciation.

Some general introductory notes first. The Latin alphabet is the same as the modern English alphabet but it is lacking the letters j and w. Also, y is always a vowel in Latin, and never a consonant like in English sometimes (in English y can be both a vowel and a consonant e.g. in gym it is a vowel, in yellow it is a consonant). The letter

Latin Diacriticology

In Latin, some accents or marks are used to help indicate whether a vowel is long or short. The marks are

• ◌̆ - the breve. This indicates the vowel is short. This is also optional, as vowels without a breve are short, too. It's mostly just used in some circumstances to clear up confusion
• ◌̄ - the macron. This indicates the vowel is long
• ◌̈ - the diaeresis. This indicates that the vowel it is on does not form a diphthong with the preceeding vowel e.g. aër is pronounced a-er as two distinct syllables. This mark is very rare

The accents should be considered a part of spelling as differences in pronunciation can change the meaning of a word. For example, liber means book but līber means free.

If you need help typing these characters I know of two good ways. On Linux systems, you can easily enable the compose key. I bound my compose key to my caps lock key, since I never use caps lock. On Manjaro, it can be enabled in the keyboard settings. The general way to use compose is like this: compose + accent + letter. So, examples using the letter a for Latin are

• compose + - + a = ā
• compose + b + a = ă
• compose + " + a = ä

A web version which works for everyone can be found at Lexilogos

How to Pronounce Classical Latin

Vowels

* There's really no English equivalent to y and ȳ in Latin - my suggestion would be to listen to a spoken IPA chart of the symbols I provide (especially if you are not familiar with the French pronunciation of tu). Actually, it's wise to listen to all of them because these words I've used are approximations in my Southern British accent - Americans and Northerners could be wildly different.

^ when i comes at the start of a word, it takes on a sound somewhat like an English consonant y - kind of like the y in yew. The IPA is j

Diphthongs

Consonants

* this sound does not exist in English but think a Spanish perro or a Welsh amser. This is called an alveolar trill. Not like a French "rolled" r which is a uvular fricative. For English speakers this will probably be the most challenging sound in classical Latin to make. Growing up in Wales, this is a very easy sound for me - but some people had to go to special talk classes to get this down for the Welsh language!

^ in some English accents the x is softened to a kind of gz sound. Some people say exert something like egzert. In Latin it's always a hard ks sound.

Also, bs and bt are usually pronounced like ps and pt. For example, the word urbs is usually pronounced like ur-ps

How to Pronounce Ecclesiastical Latin

I tend to think of classical Latin as a "hard" sound, but ecclesiastical Latin is a much more "soft" sound. The pronunciation is more or less the same as in Italian

Vowels

Unlike classical Latin, ecclesiastical Latin does not differentiate between long and short vowels.

Diphthongs

Consonants

* the rolling here is softer than in classical Latin, kind of like the Spanish peron. Just a quick tap rather than an extended roll

"Modern" Latin Pronunciation

Ultimately, Latin is a "dead" language and as such there is no official pronunciation guide. From what I've observed, most people who learn Latin now stick fairly close to the classical pronunciation with the following differences

• v pronounced like a modern English v rather than with a w sound

• bs and bt are pronounced with a b sound rather than the p sound. Urbs is this pronounced how it is read rather than like urps

References

Collar, W. C., Daniell, M. G., Jenkins, T. (1918) Collar and Daniel's First Year Latin (Revised Ed.). Ginn and Company

Bullions, P. (1856) The Principles of Latin Grammar (62nd Ed.). Pratt, Woodford, Farmer & Brace

Wheelock, F. M. (2005) Wheelock's Latin 6th ed. HarperResource

CanticaNOVA Publications, Ecclesiastical Latin Pronunciation. Available from https://www.canticanova.com/latin_pron.htm

Covington, M. A. (2005) Latin Pronunciation Demystified. University of Georgia