Lesson 1 Notes

General Pronunciation
1. There exist three common, modern schools of Latin pronunciation with no particular one

more correct than the others: Revived, Common, and Ecclesiastic

2. Each has its own accent
a. Revived: intonation and accent similar to Italian but following the below rules.
Revived Latin Accent is intended to emulate the pronunciation of Ciceros time
b. Common: no particular accent; just follow the below rules. Most schools in
America follow this system
c. Ecclesiastic: pronounced exactly like Italian; look elsewhere for those rules. Used
in religious settings.

Vowels
1. Latin has the same vowels which English does: A, E, I, O, U, and Y
2. Vowels have a quality called length and are either long or short. Vowel length mostly
has to do with the amount of time you pronounce a vowel, but also with the sound
3. I discuss later how to tell a vowels length, naturally and by position. Do not worry what
these terms mean right now; they come up in Syllable Weight. In the meantime, know:
a. Vowels that are naturally long have a macron over them
i. A macron is merely a line above a vowel, e.g.
ii. Macrons are essential to the spelling of a word. If asked to translate a
word from English to Latin, or to spell a word in Latin, the macrons must
be included
b. A vowel may, alternatively, have a circumflex over it to mark length
i. A circumflex is an arrow above a vowel, e.g.
ii. This happens occasionally. I dont do it this way
c. Vowels that are naturally short have no macron
4. The vowels, long and short, are pronounced as follows:
A, pronounced like the a in cat

, like a in father

E, like e in pet

, like ay in way

I, like i in pit

, like e in we

O, like o in pot

, like o in clover

U, like u in put

, like u in rude

Y, either long or short, pronounced like eu

as the French have or like as it is in German,
but not as hard

5. In certain combinations called diphthongs, vowels create a single different sound

a. If a combination of vowels is not one of the certain diphthong, pronounce them as
two separate letters.
b. The certain six diphthongs are:
AE, like eye in English

AU, like ou in house

EI, like eig in reign

EU, like e and u pronounced

quickly together

OE, like oi in oil

UI, like u and i quickly

c. The combination ui is only a diphthong in five cases, to be found later.

Elsewhere, pronounce the letters separately

Consonants
1. Certain consonant pronunciations vary in Latin from English
2. These consonants may be divided between those needed for both Classical and Revived
pronunciation and just Revived
3. Consonants for both Classical and Revived Latin:
C, always hard like the k in skip

T, always hard like the t in stop

G, always hard like in get

S, always soft, like in sick. It is

acceptable to pronounce the finale
s like a z if preceded by a
consonant

V, always like w

I, makes a y sound when first letter

of word preceding a vowel or when
between two vowels, works like an
i (vowel) for first vowel and y
for second vowel

CH, makes the aspirated k, like in key

PH, the p sound in pin

TH, the t sound in top

4. Consonants for Revived Latin:
BS/BT, make a ps/pt

Q, always has a u afterwards;

makes kw sound

GN, makes ngn sound, like hangnail

R, always trilled, like in Italian and

Spanish

H, aspirated, not as hard as h in English

X, always ks never gz

M, pronounced like in English but

Z, pronounced hard, like dz
nasalized at end of a word, like final n in
French

Syllabification
1. Putting a word into syllables answers the question of how to pronounce a word, e.g. is the
Latin word cubiculum pronounced cu-bi-cu-lum or cub-i-cul-um?
2. To show a separation of syllables, use a straight line down ( | ) in between syllables so:
cu|bi|cu|lum
3. There is a process for separating a word into syllables, or syllabifying a word:
a. Look for any diphthongs in the word and treat them as a single vowel
b. Syllabify the word from left to right using the 5 rules:
i. The first consonant(s) before the first vowel go in the same syllable as the
first vowel and the final consonant(s) after the final vowel go with the
final vowel
1. For example, frugifer: the fr belong to the same syllable as the
u and the final r, the same syllable as the e
ii. When two vowels that are not a diphthong are next to each other, they are
in separate syllables. (dont forget that diphthongs count as one vowel)
1. For example, in dea, the e and a are in separate syllables, de-a
iii. When there is one consonant between two vowels, the consonant goes into
a syllable with the second vowel
iv. When there are two consonants between two vowels, you split the
consonants so that the first consonant goes into a syllable with the first
vowel and the second consonant with the second vowel
v. A case with three or more consonants between two vowels is rare in Latin.
In such a case if you do run into it, just syllabicate wherever it seems least
awkward to pronounce the letters.
4. However, there is a case when two special types of consonants, mutes and liquids, next
each other
a. Mutes and Liquids are consonants such that when a mute is placed before a liquid,
the combination becomes one consonant, most of the time.
b. The Mutes are: P, B, T, D, C, G, and F
c. The Liquids are: L and R
d. This does not happen when a Liquid comes before a Mute
e. This rule isnt followed: when for some reason, emphasis wants to be given and
the mute and liquid can be separate consonants, and fairly often in poetry, where
need be.
5. The consonants CH, PH, and TH should be treated as a single consonant.

6. QU, should be treated as a single consonant. The U must not be considered a distinct
vowel and affect the syllabification process in anyway

Syllable Weight
1. Syllables have a quality called weight Latin: heavy or light.
a. When they are heavy, they contain a vowel which is long either by nature or
position.
b. Short syllables are short by nature, alone
2. Syllables that are heavy by nature:
a. Have vowels that are long by nature, i.e. they have a macron
b. Have diphthongs (diphthongs are long because they combine two short vowels to
make a long sounding vowel)
3. Syllables that are heavy by position:
a. Have a vowel which comes before two consonants regardless of whether the two
consonants are in the same syllable as the vowel or not
i. Do not forget that a Mute-Liquid, CH, PH, TH, and QU are single
consonants
b. Have a vowel which comes before X and Z. X and Z are considered to be two
consonants because X makes a ks sound and Z makes a dz/ds.
4. Syllables which are light are syllables which are not heavy by nature nor position, i.e. it is
neither has a macron nor is a diphthong nor is it a vowel followed by two consonants that
are not of the ones listed above
5. To indicate syllable weight, draw a line (sort of like a macron but not called one) over the
letters of a heavy syllable and draw a breve ( or ) over letters of a light syllable
6. The significance of syllable weight is that it tells you about the rhythm in Latin poetry
and is the basis for rules regarding stress

Stress
1. Stress tells you how to pronounce a word, e.g. whether to pronounce it LIH-ber or lihBER
2. Stress, in Latin, is marked by an acute accent mark over the vowel of the syllable of
stress, e.g. lber and fluvrum
3. Two important terms used when dealing with stress are penult and antepenult. Penult
means the second to last syllable; Antepenult means third to last syllable
4. There are two rules for where to put the stress in Latin:
a. If a word has only to syllables, the stress goes on the penult
b. If a word has more than two syllables, the stress goes on the penult, ONLY if the
penult is heavy. If the penult is not heavy, the stress goes on the antepenult,
regardless of whether or not the antepenult is heavy
5. In some longer Latin words, there may be more than one stressed syllable. These are not
important at the moment. If you really want, the steps to find the other accents are:

a. Take the long word already accentuated for the first step 4 stress.

b. Drop the accentuated vowel and the letters after it

c. Reapply the two rules for finding accents on the temporarily shorter word and
place the accent
d. Reattach the syllables that were dropped off in step b
e. To find other accents, repeat process