Why did the pronunciation of latin change from the ancient Roman days to the way the church uses latin?

Question

For instance, all "v"'s used to be pronounced "w". All "c"'s were hard "c"'s. "Venit" was "Wenit". "Excelsis" was "exkelsis". etc. What happened, and why? Is the church wrong when they sing the latin hymns this way?

Answer 1

Latin was spoken over a vast area of Europe and further beyond and people naturally began to pronounce it in their own peculiar way. (Look what's happened to English!) Gradually the pronounciation of the ancient Romans gave way to modified forms of Latin and not unreasonably, given the location of the Vatican, church Latin adopted the Italian pronounciation. Research was subsequently done into the pronounciation of Ancient Rome and gradually people were taught the nearest approximation to the original form of Latin possible, which is what we learn in school. I would not say that ecclesiastical Latin is "wrong" -- it is simply an expression of the way the language evolved in Rome in more recent times.

Answer 2

Phonetic drift has lots of causes. First, the Western Roman Empire was invaded by non-Latin barbarians. Their adoption of the native language was imperfect even when not haphazard, and barbaric tongues had some influence on common Latin grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.

Second, there are natural shifts in pronunciation for all languages. Sometimes children learning their mother tongue imperfectly mimic their people, causing subtle changes in pronunciation that add up over time. Sometimes there are new pronunciation styles that become habitual, especially if a certain fad has elite favor. Remember, populations were more isolated back then so pronunciation styles also varied from valley to valley. Pronunciation thus changes in a manner analogous to the way genetic changes happen.

As to whether Catholic hymnody is pronouncing words wrong, I think the differences between ancient and modern pronunciation are either trivial or salutary.

Singing well requires a specific kind of enunciation. Some phonemes are sung better than others, and musical habits have grown around the newer pronunciation. I think the ecclesiastical pronunciation of "venite adoremus" works better with the music than the academic classical pronunciation. Granted, one could rewrite the music to fit the speculated ancient pronunciation, but unless it improves the performance why bother?

Latin hymns are rare enough in my neck of the woods that I don't worry much about the pronunciation, except insofar as it is corrupted by habits of American English speakers.

Answer 3

In the Western Church Latin used to be the Language of the Mass and within the coptic and Orthodox branches they mentioned it in there local Languages. Well it used to be now not Dogma and under no circumstances used to be so far as what language it must be mentioned in. Well bet what commencing in November a larger translation of the Mass to larger have compatibility the Latin phrases will start. Already Catholics are complaining over the alterations which can be handiest correcting the that means of the phrases akin to within the creed we are saying all that's seen and invisible and the brand new phrases can be all that's obvious and unseen.....

Answer 4

Two superb answers above - I've nothing to add to the answers, but if you are really interested in how languages - all languages - change over time, here are three things to google:

Grimm's Law
Great Vowel Shift
Anglo-Frisian Nasal Spirant Law.

These are all about English and related languages, but they are great explanations of the 'hows' of language change, if not the 'whys', which are still unclear. The first two were very significant in forming English as it's spoken today. The third one is somewhat minor, but I included that one so you can see how some small changes creep in and also to show one reason that Frisian is the closest relative to English.