How do we know how to pronounce Latin ?

Question

One can take classes to learn the Latin language. How does anyone know the proper pronunciation of Latin words ?

Answer 1

If you go to Google Books, (click the more>>>> above the Google search box, then select Book Search) and search for "latin pronunciation tafel", you will find Tafel's excellent book on the topic. it comes up second in the search list. Many scholars have devoted many thousands of hours to recontructing the Roman pronunciation of Latin, so now we have a pretty good idea of how it should sound, and Tafel will give you a lot of the evidence for how we know the Romans pronounced specific sounds the way they did. We have even more evidence since his book was written, but only the fine details have changed, most of the groundwork was done in the mid to late 1800's.

If you want to listen to contemporary experts reading Latin aloud, using this restored classical pronunciation, then you can listen to famous orators like Robert Sonkowsy, reciting latin poetry. The Latinum podcast was set up to address precisely this issue - to present a large number of downloadable examples of spoken Latin, all using this restored pronunciation. You can listen to them here: http://latinum.mypodcast.com

The Podcast also offers online free downloadable Latin lessons, which follow George Adler's latin textbook, which you can also download for free from google books.

The Latinum Podcast also has an Episode based on Charles Bennett's textbook on precisely this subject, which you can listen to.

Answer 2

How To Pronounce Latin

Answer 3

To this very day Latin has been a spoken language, although it's nobody's native language any more.
Linguists through the ages have tried to figure out how it was pronounced in Roman times and derived at similar conclusions from
a) the language as it is spoken today by the members of the Catholic hierarchy
b) comparing the languages descended from Latin, (e.g. Italian, Spanish, French)
c) comparisons with spellings of the same text (names play a big role here) in Greek, which has not changed as much through the millenia,
d) spelling mistakes: if letters are pronounced in different ways there will be spelling mistakes, in the absence of such you may safely come to the conclusion that they were not.
And if there are mistakes you can deduct what the different pronunciations were.

Answer 4

We know the pronunciation because of tradition handed down through the generations. While the general public has not spoken Latin for some time, academicians and church authorities have kept the tradition alive over the centuries.

Answer 5

nobody really knows that since nobody alive today ever had latin as a first language... but by guessing they make it...
I've had 3 latin teachers and each of them pronounced it in a different way.

Answer 6

Latin has always been in continuous usage, especially in the medical and legal professions and in the Roman Catholic Church.

Get yourself a decent teacher, and you'll learn how to pronounce it correctly.

Answer 7

Spanish, French, Portugese, and Italian all derive from Latin. That is how the earlier pronounciation has been derived, also courtesy of the Catholic Church, which has used the language continuously in church ritual since then.

Answer 8

I've been using Wheelock's Latin. It gives a pretty straightforward system of pronunciation.

However, when I am unsure, I just use the spanish vowel sound system.

Answer 9

We don't, there are just different schools of thought that give you a rough idea. But there's the neverending battle between those who would have you say circus and those who prefer kirkus.

Answer 10

Well ... we don't know for sure. Most of it is guesswork. The script is concrete, but we have no idea how it was actually pronounced.