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Latin spelling and pronunciation

Latin spelling, or Latin orthography, is the spelling of Latin words


written in the scripts of all historical phases of Latin from Old Latin
to the present. All scripts use the same alphabet, but conventional
spellings may vary from phase to phase. The Roman alphabet, or
Latin alphabet, was adapted from theOld Italic script to represent the
phonemes of the Latin language. The Old Italic script had in turn
been borrowed from the Greek alphabet, itself adapted from the
Phoenician alphabet.

The Latin alphabet most resembles the Greek alphabet around 540
BC, as it appears on the red-figures pottery of the time.

Latin pronunciation continually evolved over the centuries, making


it difficult for speakers in one era to know how Latin was spoken in
prior eras. A given phoneme may be represented by different letters
in different periods. This article deals primarily with modern
scholarship's best reconstruction of Classical Latin's phonemes
(phonology) and the pronunciation and spelling used by educated
people in the late Republic. This article then touches upon later
Transcription of an ancient Roman inscriptionin
changes and other variants.
Roman square capitals.[note 1] The words are
separated by engraved dots, a common but by no
means universal practice, and some of the long

Contents vowels (e.g., in TVSCÓRVM) are marked by apices.

Letterforms
Letters and phonemes
Consonants
Notes on phonetics
Notes on spelling
Vowels
Monophthongs
Long and short vowels
Adoption of Greek upsilon
Sonus medius
Vowel nasalization
Diphthongs
Vowel and consonant length
Table of orthography
Syllables and stress
Old Latin stress
Classical Latin syllables and stress
Syllable
Nucleus
Onset and coda
Heavy and light syllables
Stress rule
Iambic shortening
Elision
Latin spelling and pronunciation today
Spelling
Pronunciation
Post-Medieval Latin
Loan words and formal study
Ecclesiastical pronunciation

Pronunciation shared by Vulgar Latin and Romance


languages
Examples
From Classical Latin
From Medieval Latin
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links

Letterforms
The forms of the Latin alphabet used during the Classical period did
not distinguish between upper case and lower case. Roman
inscriptions typically use Roman square capitals, which resemble
modern capitals, and handwritten text often uses old Roman cursive,
which includes letterforms similar to modern lowercase.

This article uses small caps for Latin text, representing Roman
square capitals, and long vowels are marked with acutes,
representing apices. In the tables below, Latin letters and digraphs are
A papyrus fragment inRoman cursive with portions
paired with the phonemes they usually represent in the International of speeches delivered in theRoman Senate
Phonetic Alphabet.

Letters and phonemes


In ancient Latin spelling, individual letters mostly corresponded to individual phonemes, with three main exceptions:

1. The vowel letters a, e, i, o, u, y represented both short and long vowels. The long vowels were often marked by
apices during the Classical period⟨Á É Ó V Ý⟩, and long i was written using a taller version⟨I⟩, called i longa "long I":
⟨ꟾ⟩;[1] but now long vowels are sometimes written with amacron in modern editions (ā), while short vowels are
marked with a breve (ă) in dictionaries when necessary.
2. Some pairs of vowel letters, such asae, represented either a diphthong in one syllable or two vowels in adjacent
syllables.
3. The letters i and u - v represented either the close vowels/i/ and /u/ or the semivowels /j/ and /w/.
In the tables below, Latin letters and digraphs are paired with the phonemes that they usually represent in the International Phonetic
Alphabet.

Consonants
This is a table of the consonant sounds of Classical Latin. Sounds in parentheses are allophones, sounds with an asterisk exist mainly
in loanwords and sounds with a dagger (†) are phonemes only in some analyses.
Velar
Labial Dental Palatal Glottal
plain labialized

voiced b d ɡ ɡʷ†
Plosive voiceless p t k kʷ†
aspirated pʰ* tʰ* kʰ*
voiced z*
Fricative
voiceless f s h
Nasal m n (ŋ)
Rhotic r
Approximant l j w

Notes on phonetics

The labialized velar stops/kʷ/ and /ɡʷ/ may both have been single phonemes rather than clusters like the/kw/ and /
ɡw/ in English quick and penguin. /kʷ/ is more likely to have been a phoneme than/ɡʷ/. /kʷ/ occurs between vowels
and counts as a single consonant in Classical Latin poetry , but /ɡʷ/ occurs only after [ŋ], where it cannot be identified
as a single or double consonant.[2] /kʷ/ and [ɡʷ] were palatalized before a front vowel, becoming[kᶣ] and [ɡᶣ], as in
quī [kᶣiː] listen compared with quod [kʷɔd], and lingua [ˈlɪŋ.ɡʷa] compared with pinguis [ˈpɪŋ.ɡᶣɪs]. This sound
change did not apply to/w/ in the same position: uī - vī [wiː].[3]
/kʷ ɡʷ/ before /u/ may have become [k ɡ] by dissimilation. This is suggested by the fact thatequus [ˈɛ.kʷʊs] and
unguunt [ˈʊŋ.ɡʷʊnt] (Old Latin equos and unguont) are spelledecus and ungunt, which may have indicated the
pronunciations [ˈɛ.kʊs] and [ˈʊŋ.ɡʊnt]. These spellings may, however, simply indicate that c g before u were
labialized like /kʷ ɡʷ/, so that writing a doubleuu was redundant.[4]
The voiceless plosives/p t k kʷ/ in Latin were likely less aspirated than voiceless plosives at the beginning of words
in English; for example, Latin/k/ was not as strongly aspirated ask in kind but more like k in English sky or look.
However, there was no phonemic contrast between voiceless and aspirated plosives in native Latin words, and the
voiceless plosives were probably somewhat aspirated at the beginnings of words and near /r/ and /l/.[5][6] Some
Greek words beginning with the voiceless plosives/p t k/, when they were borrowed into colloquial Latin, were
spelled with the graphemes used to represent voiced plosivesb d g /b d ɡ/, e.g., Latin gubernator besides West
Greek κυβερνάτας [kʉbernaːtaːs] (helmsman). That suggests that Latin speakers felt the Greek voiceless plosives to
sound less aspirated than their own native equivalents. [7]

The aspirated consonants/pʰ tʰ kʰ/ as distinctive phonemes were originally foreign to Latin, appearing in educated
loanwords and names from Greek. In such cases, the aspiration was likely produced only by educated speakers. [5][6]

/z/ was also not native to Classical Latin. It appeared in Greek loanwords starting around the first century BC, when it
was probably pronounced[z] initially and doubled [zz] between vowels, in contrast toClassical Greek [dz] or [zd]. In
Classical Latin poetry, the letter ⟨Z⟩ between vowels always counts as two consonants for metrical purposes. [8][9]

In Classical Latin, the coronal sibilant/s/ was likely unvoiced in all positions. In Old Latin, single/s/ between vowels
was pronounced as voiced[z] but had changed to /r/ by rhotacism by the time of Classical Latin, as ingerō /ˈɡe.roː/
as compared with gestus /ˈɡes.tus/. Intervocalic /s/ in Classical usually derives from an earlier double/ss/ after a
long vowel or diphthong, as incausa, cāsus from earlier caussa, cāssus;[10] or from loanwords, such aspausa from
Greek παῦσις (pausis).
In Old Latin, final /s/ after a short vowel was often lost, probably after first changing to[h] (debuccalization), as in the
inscriptional form Cornelio for Cornelios (Classical Latin Cornelius). Often in the poetry ofPlautus, Ennius, and
Lucretius, final /s/ before a word beginning in a consonant did not make the preceding syllable heavy .[10]
/f/ was labiodental in Classical Latin, but it may have beenbilabial [ɸ] in Old Latin,[11] or perhaps [ɸ] in free variation
with [f]. Lloyd, Sturtevant, and Kent make this argument based on certain misspellings in inscriptions, the Proto-Indo-
European phone *bʰ from which many instances of the Latinf descended (others are from*dʰ and *gʷʰ) and the way
the sound appears to have behaved in Vulgar Latin, particularly in Spain.[12]
In most cases /m/ was pronounced as a bilabial nasal. At the end of a word, however , it was generally lost beginning
in Old Latin (except when another nasal or a plosive followed it), causing the preceding vowel to be lengthened and
nasalized,[13] as in decem [ˈdɛ.kẽː] listen . In Old Latin inscriptions, it is often omitted, as inviro for virom
(Classical virum). It was frequently elided before a following vowel inLatin poetry, and it was lost without a trace
(apart from the lengthening) in the Romance languages, [14] except in monosyllabic words.

/n/ assimilated to /m/ before labial consonants as inimpar [ˈɪm.par] listen < *in-par, to [ɱ] before /f/ (if it did not
represent nasalization) and to[ŋ] before velar consonants, as inquīnque [ˈkᶣiːŋ.kᶣɛ] listen .[15] This assimilation
likely also occurred between the prepositionin and a following word: in causā [ɪŋ ˈkau̯ .saː], in pace [ɪm ˈpa.kɛ].[16]
/ɡ/ assimilated to a velar nasal [ŋ] before /n/.[17] Allen and Greenough say that a vowel before[ŋn] is always long,[18]
but W. Sidney Allen says that is based on aninterpolation in Priscian, and the vowel was actually long or short
depending on the root, as for examplerēgnum [ˈreːŋ.nũː] from the root of rēx [reːks], but magnus [ˈmaŋ.nʊs] from
the root of magis [ˈma.ɡɪs].[19] /ɡ/ probably did not assimilate to[ŋ] before /m/. The cluster /ɡm/ arose by syncope,
as for example tegmen [ˈtɛɡ.mɛn] from tegimen. Original /ɡm/ developed into /mm/ in flamma, from the root of
flagrō.[2] At the start of a word,[ŋn] was reduced to [n], and this change was reflected in the orthography in later
texts: gnātus [ˈnaː.tʊs] became nātus, gnōscō [ˈnoː.skoː] became nōscō.
In Classical Latin, the rhotic /r/ was most likely an alveolar trill [r]. Gaius Lucilius likens it to the sound of a dog, and
later writers describe it as being produced by vibration. In Old Latin, intervocalic /z/ developed into /r/ (rhotacism),
suggesting an approximant like the English[ɹ], and /d/ was sometimes written as/r/, suggesting a tap [ɾ] like
Spanish single r.[20]
/l/ had two allophones in Latin:[l] and [ɫ]. Roman grammarians called these variantsexīlis ('thin') and plēnus or
pinguis ('full' or 'thick'). Those adjectives are used elsewhere forfront and back vowels respectively, which suggests
that the "thin" allophone was a plainalveolar lateral approximant[l], like the clear /l/ in English leaf in some English
dialects or that of languages likeSpanish or German, while the "full" or "thick" allophone wasvelarized like the
English dark /l/ in full. It is partly uncertain where these allophones occurred. Sihler and Allen agree that /l/ was clear
when the sound was doubled as/ll/, and dark when it occurred before another consonant or at the end of a word, but
disagree on whether clear or darkl occurred before vowels. Sihler says that/l/ was clear before /i/ and dark before
other vowels, but Allen says that/l/ was dark before back vowels in pre-Classical Latin and clear before both front
and back vowels in Classical Latin.This represents a partial agreement, however , in that Sihler argues the Classical
Latin /l/ had three degrees of velarization, with a darker enunciation before consonants than vowels. [21][22]

/j/ generally appeared only at the beginning of words, before a vowel, as in iaceō /ˈja.kɛ.oː/, except in compound
words such as adiaceō /adˈja.kɛ.oː/ listen . Between vowels, this sound was generally not found as a single
consonant, only as doubled/jː/, as in cuius /ˈkuj.jus/ listen , except in compound words such astrāiectus /traː
ˈjek.tus/. /j/ varied with /i/ in the same morpheme in iam /jãː/ and etiam /ˈe.ti.ãː/, and in poetry, one could be replaced
with the other for the purposes ofmeter.[23]
/w/ was pronounced as an approximant until the first century AD, when/w/ and /b/ began to develop into fricatives. In
poetry, /w/ and /u/ could be replaced with each other, as in /ˈsi.lu.a/ for silva /ˈsil.wa/ and /ˈɡen.wa/ for genua /
ˈɡe.nu.a/. Unlike /j/, it was not doubled as/wː/ or /ww/ between vowels, except in Greek loanwords:cavē /ˈka.weː/,
but Evander /ewˈwan.der/ from Εὔανδρος.[24]

Notes on spelling

Doubled consonant letters, such ascc, ss, represented geminated (doubled or long) consonants:/kː sː/. In Old Latin,
geminate consonants were written singly like single consonants, until the middle of the 2nd century BC, when they
began to be doubled in writing.[note 2] Grammarians mention the marking of double consonants with thesicilicus, a
diacritic in the shape of a sickle. This mark appears in a few inscriptions of theAugustan era.[25]
c and k both represent the velar stop/k/; qu represents the labialized velar stop/kʷ/. The letters q and c distinguish
minimal pairs between/ku/ and /kʷ/, such as cui /kui̯/ and quī /kʷiː/.[26] In Classical Latin, k appeared in only a few
words, such as kalendae.[27]
x represented the consonant cluster/ks/. In Old Latin, this sequence was also spelled asks, cs, and xs. X was
borrowed from the Western Greek alphabet, in which the letterform of chi Χ was pronounced as/ks/. In the standard
Ionic alphabet, used for modern editions of Ancient Greek, on the other hand, Χ represented /kʰ/, and the letter xi Ξ
represented /ks/.[28]
In Old Latin inscriptions,/k/ and /ɡ/ were not distinguished. They were both represented byc before e and i, q before
o and u, and k before consonants anda.[1] The letterform of c derives from Greek gamma Γ, which represented /ɡ/,
but its use for /k/ may come from Etruscan, which did not distinguish voiced and voiceless plosives. In Classical
Latin, c represented /ɡ/ only in c and cn, the abbreviations of thepraenomina (first names) Gaius and Gnaeus.[27][29]
The letter g was created in the third century BC to distinguish the voiced/ɡ/ from voiceless /k/.[30] Its letterform
derived from c by the addition of a diacritic or stroke. Plutarch attributes this innovation toSpurius Carvilius Ruga
around 230 BC,[1] but it may have originated withAppius Claudius Caecusin the fourth century BC.[31]
The combination gn probably represented the consonant cluster[ŋn], at least between vowels, as inagnus [ˈaŋ.nʊs]
listen .[13][32] Vowels before this cluster were sometimes long and sometimes short.[19]
The digraphs ph, th, and ch represented the aspirated plosives/pʰ/, /tʰ/ and /kʰ/. They began to be used in writing
around 150 BC,[30] primarily as a transcription of Greekphi Φ, theta Θ, and chi Χ, as in Philippus, cithara, and
achāia. Some native words were later also written with these digraphs, such as pulcher, lachrima, gracchus,
triumphus, probably representing aspirated allophones of the voiceless plosives near /r/ and /l/. Aspirated plosives
and the glottal fricative/h/ were also used hypercorrectively, an affectation satirized in Catullus 84.[5][6]
In Old Latin, Koine Greek initial/z/ and /zz/ between vowels were represented bys and ss, as in sona from ζώνη and
massa from μᾶζα. Around the second and first centuries B.C., the Greek letterzeta Ζ was adopted to represent/z/
and /zz/.[9] However, the Vulgar Latin spellings z or zi for earlier di and d before e, and the spellings di and dz for
earlier z, suggest the pronunciation/dz/, as for example ziomedis for diomedis, and diaeta for zeta.[33]
In ancient times u and i represented the approximant consonants /w/ and /j/, as well as the close vowels/u(ː)/ and
/i(ː)/.
i representing the consonant/j/ was usually not doubled in writing so a singlei represented double /jː/ or /jj/ and the
sequences /ji/ and /jːi/, as in cuius for *cuiius /ˈkuj.jus/, conicit for *coniicit /ˈkon.ji.kit/, and rēicit for *reiiicit /ˈrej.ji.kit/.
Both the consonantal and vocalic pronunciations ofi could occur in some of the same environments: comparemaius
/ˈmaj.jus/ with Gāius /ˈɡaː.i.us/, and Iūlius /ˈjuː.li.us/ with Iūlus /iˈuː.lus/. The vowel before a doubled/jː/ is sometimes
marked with a macron, as in cūius. it indicates not that the vowel is long but that the first syllable isheavy from the
double consonant.[23]
v between vowels represented single/w/ in native Latin words but double/ww/ in Greek loanwords. Both the
consonantal and vocalic pronunciations ofv sometimes occurred in similar environments, as ingenua [ˈɡɛ.nʊ.a] and
silva [ˈsɪl.wa].[24][34]

Vowels

Monophthongs
Latin has ten native vowels, spelled a, e, i, o, u. In Classical Latin, each vowel had short and long versions: /a ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ/ and /aː eː iː oː
uː/. The long versions of the close and mid vowels e, i, o, u had a different vowel quality from the short versions, so that long /eː, oː/
were similar to short /ɪ, ʊ/. Some loanwords from Greek had the vowel y, which was pronounced as /y yː/ by educated speakers but
approximated with the native vowelsu and i by less educated speakers.

Front Central Back


long short long short long short
Close iː ɪ uː ʊ
Mid eː ɛ oː ɔ
Open aː a

Long and short vowels


Each vowel letter (with the possible exception of y) represents at least two phonemes. a can represent either short /a/ or long /aː/, e
represents either /e/ or /eː/, etc.

Short mid vowels (/e o/) and close vowels (/i u/) were pronounced with a different quality from their long counterparts, being also
more open: [ɛ], [ɔ], [ɪ] and [ʊ]. This opening made the short vowels i u [ɪ ʊ] similar in quality to long é ó [eː oː] respectively. i é and
[35]
u ó were often written in place of each other in inscriptions:

trebibos for tribibus [ˈtrɪ.bɪ.bʊs]


minsis for mensis [ˈmẽː.sɪs]
sob for sub [sʊb]
punere for pōnere [ˈpoː.næ.rɛ]
Short /e/ most likely had a more open allophone before/r/ and tended toward near-open [æ].[36]

Short /e/ and /i/ were probably pronounced closer when they occurred before another vowel. mea was written as mia in inscriptions.
Short /i/ before another vowel is often written with i longa, as in dīes, indicating that its quality was similar to that of long /iː/ and is
almost never confused withe in this position.[37]

Adoption of Greek upsilon


y was used in Greek loanwords with upsilon Υ. This letter represented the close front rounded vowel, both short and long: /y yː/.[38]
Latin did not have this sound as a distinctive phoneme, and speakers tended to pronounce such loanwords with
/u uː/ in Old Latin and
/i iː/ in Classical and Late Latin if they were unable to produce/y yː/.
Sonus medius
An intermediate vowel sound (likely a close central vowel [ɨ] or possibly its rounded counterpart [ʉ]), called sonus medius, can be
reconstructed for the classical period.[39] Such a vowel is found in documentum, optimus, lacrima (also spelled docimentum,
optumus, lacruma) and other words. It developed out of a historical short /u/, later fronted by vowel reduction. In the vicinity of
[40]
labial consonants, this sound was not as fronted and may have retained some rounding.

Vowel nasalization
Vowels followed by a nasal consonant were allophonically realised as Examples of nasalized vowels at
long nasal vowels in two environments:[41] ends of words and before -ns-, -nf-
sequences
Before word-final m:[14] monstrum
monstrum /ˈmon.strum/ > [ˈmõː.strũː]. 0:00
dentem /ˈden.tem/ > [ˈdɛn.tẽː]
[16]
Before nasal consonants followed by a fricative: mensis
censor /ˈken.sor/ > [ˈkẽː.sɔr] (in early inscriptions, often 0:00
written as cesor)
consul /ˈkon.sul/ > [ˈkõː.sʊl] (often written as cosol and
abbreviated as cos) infans, infantem
inferōs /ˈin.fe.roːs/ > [ˈĩː.fæ.roːs] (written as iferos)
0:00
Those long nasal vowels had the same quality as ordinary long
vowels. In Vulgar Latin, the vowels lost their nasalisation, and they
merged with the long vowels (which were themselves shortened by Problems playing these files? See media
help.
that time). This is shown by many forms in the Romance languages,
such as Spanish costar from Vulgar Latin cōstāre (originally constāre) and Italian mese from Vulgar Latin mēse (Classical Latin
mensem). On the other hand, the short vowel and /n/ was restored in French enseigne and enfant from insignia and infantem (e is the
normal development of Latin shorti), likely by analogy with other forms beginning in the prefixin-.[42]

When a final -m occurred before a plosive or nasal in the next word, however, it was pronounced as a nasal at the place of articulation
of the following consonant. For instance, tan dūrum [tan ˈduː.rũː] was written for tam dūrum in inscriptions, and cum nōbīs [kʊn
ˈnoː.biːs] was a double entendre,[14] possibly for cunnō bis [ˈkʊnnoː bɪs].

Diphthongs

Diphthongs classified by
beginning sound
Front Back
Close ui ui̯
ei ei̯ oe oi̯ ~ oe̯
Mid
eu eu̯ ou ou̯
ae ai̯ ~ ae̯
Open
au au̯

ae, oe, au, ei, eu could represent diphthongs: ae represented /ae̯ /, oe represented /oe̯ /, au represented /au̯ /, ei represented /ei̯/, and
eu represented /eu̯ /. ui sometimes represented the diphthong/ui̯/, as in cui listen and huic.[26]

If there is a tréma above the second vowel, both vowels are pronounced separately:aë [a.ɛ], aü [a.ʊ], eü [ɛ.ʊ] and oë [ɔ.ɛ].

In Old Latin, ae, oe were written as ai, oi and probably pronounced as[ai̯, oi̯], with a fully closed second element, similar to the final
syllable in French travail . In the late Old Latin period, the last element of the diphthongs was lowered to [e],[43] so that the
diphthongs were pronounced /ae̯ / and /oe̯ / in Classical Latin, similar to the diphthongs in English high and boy. They were
then monophthongized to /ɛː/ and /eː/, starting in rural areas at the end of the Republican period.[note 3] The process, however, does
not seem to have been completed before the 3rd century AD in Vulgar Latin, and some scholars say that it may have been regular by
the 5th century.[44]

Vowel and consonant length


Vowel and consonant length were more significant and more clearly defined in Latin than in modern English. Length is the duration
of time that a particular sound is held before proceeding to the next sound in a word. Unfortunately, "vowel length" is a confusing
term for English speakers, who, in their language, call "long vowels" what are usually diphthongs rather than monophthongs. (That is
a relic of the Great Vowel Shift, during which vowels that had once been pronounced phonemically longer turned into diphthongs.) In
the modern spelling of Latin, especially in dictionaries and academic work, macrons are frequently used to mark long vowels: ⟨ā ē ī ō
ū ȳ⟩, while the breve is sometimes used to indicate that a vowel is short:⟨ă ĕ ĭ ŏ ŭ y̆⟩.

Long consonants were usually indicated through doubling, but ancient Latin orthography did not distinguish between the vocalic and
consonantal uses of i and v. Vowel length was indicated only intermittently in classical sources and even then through a variety of
means. Later medieval and modern usage tended to omit vowel length altogether. A short-lived convention of spelling long vowels
by doubling the vowel letter is associated with the poet Lucius Accius. Later spelling conventions marked long vowels with an apex
(a diacritic similar to anacute accent) or, in the case of long i, by increasing the height of the letterlong
( i); in the second century AD,
those were given apices as well.[45] Distinctions of vowel length had become less important in later Latin and have ceased to be
phonemic in the modern Romance languages, in which the previous long and short versions of the vowels have been either lost or
replaced by other phonetic contrasts.

A minimal set showing both long and short vowels and long and short consonants is
ānus /ˈaː.nus/ ('buttocks'), annus /ˈan.nus/ ('year'), anus /ˈa.nus/ ('old woman'). 0:00

Recording of ānus, annus, anus

Table of orthography

Notes
Latin Latin
English approximation
grapheme phone
⟨c⟩, ⟨k⟩ [k] Always hard as k in sky, never soft as in cellar, cello, or social
⟨t⟩ [t] As t in stay, never as t in nation
⟨s⟩ [s] As s in say, never as s in rise or measure
⟨g⟩ [ɡ] Always hard as g in good, never soft as g in gem
⟨gn⟩ [ŋn] As ngn in wingnut
[n] As n in man
⟨n⟩
[ŋ] Before ⟨c⟩, ⟨x⟩, and ⟨g⟩, as ng in sing

[l] When doubled ⟨ll⟩ and before ⟨i⟩, as clear l in link (l exilis)[46][47]
⟨l⟩
[ɫ] In all other positions, as darkl in bowl (l pinguis)
⟨qu⟩ [kʷ] Similar to qu in quick, never as qu in antique
⟨v⟩ [w] Sometimes at the beginning of a syllable, or after⟨g⟩ and ⟨s⟩, as w in wine, never as v in vine
[j] Sometimes at the beginning of a syllable, asy in yard, never as j in just
⟨i⟩
[jj] Doubled between vowels, asy y in toy yacht
⟨x⟩ [ks] A letter representing ⟨c⟩ + ⟨s⟩: as x in English axe, never as x in example
Pronunciation of Latin vowels
Latin Latin
English approximation Audio
grapheme phone

[a] similar to u in cut when short 0:00

⟨a⟩
[aː] similar to a in father when long 0:00

[ɛ] as e in pet when short 0:00

⟨e⟩
[eː] similar to ey in they when long 0:00

[ɪ] as i in sit when short


⟨i⟩
[iː] similar to i in machine when long 0:00

[ɔ] as o in sort when short 0:00

⟨o⟩
[oː] similar to o in holy when long 0:00

[ʊ] similar to u in put when short


⟨u⟩
[uː] similar to u in true when long 0:00

[ʏ] as in German Stück when short (or as shortu or i)


⟨y⟩
[yː] as in German früh when long (or as longu or i)

Syllables and stress

Old Latin stress


In Old Latin, as in Proto-Italic, stress normally fell on the first syllable of a word.[48] During this period, the word-initial stress
triggered changes in the vowels of non-initial syllables, the ef
fects of which are still visible in classical Latin. Compare for example:

faciō 'I do/make', factus 'made'; pronounced /ˈfa.ki.oː/ and /ˈfak.tus/ in later Old Latin and Classical Latin.
afficiō 'I affect', affectus 'affected'; pronounced /ˈaf.fi.ki.oː/ and /ˈaf.fek.tus/ in Old Latin following vowel reduction,/af.
ˈfi.ki.oː/ and /af.ˈfek.tus/ in Classical Latin.
In the earliest Latin writings, the original unreduced vowels are still visible. Study of this vowel reduction, as well as syncopation
(dropping of short unaccented syllables) in Greek loan words, indicates that the stress remained word-initial until around the time of
Plautus, the 3rd century BC.[49] The placement of the stress then shifted to become the pattern found in classical Latin.

Classical Latin syllables and stress


In Classical Latin, stress changed. It moved from the first syllable to one of the last three syllables, called the antepenult, the penult,
and the ultima (short for antepaenultima 'before almost last', paenultima 'almost last', and ultima syllaba 'last syllable'). Its position is
determined by the syllable weight of the penult. If the penult is heavy, it is accented; if the penult is light and there are more than two
syllables, the antepenult is accented.[50] In a few words originally accented on the penult, accent is on the ultima because the two last
[51]
syllables have been contracted, or the last syllable has been lost.
Syllable
To determine stress, syllable weight of the penult must be determined. To determine syllable weight, words must be broken up into
syllables.[52] In the following examples, syllable structure is represented using these symbols: C (a consonant), K (a stop), R (a
liquid), and V (a short vowel), VV (a long vowel or diphthong).

Nucleus
Every short vowel, long vowel, or diphthong belongs to a single syllable. This vowel forms the syllable nucleus. Thus magistrārum
has four syllables, one for every vowel (a i ā u: V V VV V), aereus has three (ae e u: VV V V), tuō has two (u ō: V VV), and cui has
one (ui: VV).[53]

Onset and coda


A consonant before a vowel, or a consonant cluster at the beginning of a word, is placed in the same syllable as the following vowel.
[53]
This consonant or consonant cluster forms the syllable onset.

fēminae /feː.mi.nae̯/ (CVV.CV.CVV)


vidēre /wi.deː.re/ (CV.CVV.CV)
puerō /pu.e.roː/ (CV.V.CVV)
beātae /be.aː.tae̯/ (CV.VV.CVV)
graviter /ɡra.wi.ter/ (CCV.CV.CVC)
strātum /straː.tum/ (CCCVV.CVC)
After this, if there is an additional consonant inside the word, it is placed at the end of the syllable. This consonant is the syllable
coda. Thus if a consonant cluster of two consonants occurs between vowels, they are broken up between syllables: one goes with the
.[54]
syllable before, the other with the syllable after

puella /pu.el.la/ (CV.VC.CV)


supersum /su.per.sum/ (CV.CVC.CVC)
coāctus /ko.aːk.tus/ (CV.VVC.CVC)
intellēxit /in.tel.leːk.sit/ (VC.CVC.CVVC.CVC)
There are two exceptions. A consonant cluster of a stop p t c b d g followed by a liquid l r between vowels usually goes to the
[54]
syllable after it, although it is also sometimes broken up like other consonant clusters.

volucris /wo.lu.kris/ or /wo.luk.ris/ (CV.CV.KRVC or CV.CVK.RVC)

Heavy and light syllables


As shown in the examples above, Latin syllables have a variety of possible structures. Here are some of them. The first four examples
are light syllables, and the last six are heavy. All syllables have at least one V (vowel). A syllable is heavy if it has another V or a VC
after the first V. In the table below, the extra V or VC is bolded, indicating that it makes the syllable heavy
.

V
CV
CCV
CCCV
CVV
CVC
CVVC
VV
VC
VVC
Thus, a syllable is heavy if it ends in a long vowel or diphthong, a short vowel and a consonant, a long vowel and a consonant, or a
diphthong and a consonant. Syllables ending in a diphthong and consonant are rare in Classical Latin.

The syllable onset has no relationship to syllable weight; both heavy and light syllables can have no onset or an onset of one, two, or
three consonants.

In Latin a syllable that is heavy because it ends in a long vowel or diphthong is traditionally called syllaba nātūrā longa ('syllable
long by nature'), and a syllable that is heavy because it ends in a consonant is called positiōne longa ('long by position'). These terms
are translations of Greek συλλαβὴ μακρά φύσει (syllabḕ makrá phýsei = 'syllable long by nature') and μακρὰ θέσει (makrà thései =
'long by proposition'), respectively; therefore positiōne should not be mistaken for implying a syllable "is long because of its
position/place in a word" but rather "is treated as 'long' by convention". This article uses the words heavy and light for syllables, and
long and short for vowels since the two are not the same.[54]

Stress rule
In a word of three or more syllables, the weight of the penult determines where the accent is placed. If the penult is light, accent is
placed on the antepenult; if it is heavy, accent is placed on the penult.[54] Below, stress is marked by placing the stress mark [ˈ] before
the stressed syllable.

Words with stress on antepenult


volucris fēminae puerō
/ˈwo.lu.kris/ /ˈfeː.mi.nae̯/ /ˈpu.e.roː/
CV.CV.CCVC CVV.CV.CVV CV.V.CVV

Words with stress on penult


volucris vidēre intellēxit beātae puella coāctus
CV.CVC.CVC CV.CVV.CV VC.CVC.CVVC.CVC CV.VV.CVV CV.VC.CV CV.VVC.CVC
/woˈluk.ris/ /wiˈdeː.re/ /in.telˈleːk.sit/ /beˈaː.tae̯/ /puˈel.la/ /koˈaːk.tus/

Iambic shortening
Iambic shortening or brevis brevians is vowel shortening that occurs in words of the type light–heavy, where the light syllable is
stressed. By this sound change, words like egō, modō, benē, amā with long final vowel change to ego, modo, bene, ama with short
final vowel.[55]

Elision
Where one word ended with a vowel (including a nasalized vowel, represented by a vowel plus m) and the next word began with a
vowel, the former vowel, at least in verse, was regularly elided; that is, it was omitted altogether, or possibly (in the case of /i/ and
/u/) pronounced like the corresponding semivowel. When the second word was est or et, a different form of elision sometimes
occurred (prodelision): the vowel of the preceding word was retained, and the e was elided instead. Elision also occurred in Ancient
Greek, but in that language, it is shown in writing by the vowel in question being replaced by an apostrophe, whereas in Latin elision
is not indicated at all in the orthography, but can be deduced from the verse form. Only occasionally is it found in inscriptions, as in
scriptust for scriptum est.[56]

Latin spelling and pronunciation today

Spelling
Modern usage, even for classical Latin texts, varies in respect of I and V. During the Renaissance, the printing convention was to use
I (upper case) and i (lower case) for both vocalic/i/ and consonantal /j/, to use V in the upper case and in the lower case to use v at the
start of words and u subsequently within the word regardless of whether/u/ and /w/ was represented.[57]

Many publishers (such as Oxford University Press) have adopted the convention of using I (upper case) and i (lower case) for both /i/
and /j/, and V (upper case) and u (lower case) for both /u/ and /w/.

An alternative approach, less common today


, is to use i and u only for the vowels andj and v for the approximants.

Most modern editions, however, adopt an intermediate position, distinguishing between u and v but not between i and j. Usually, the
non-vocalic v after q or g is still printed as u rather than v, probably because in this position it did not change from /w/ to /v/ in post-
classical times.[note 4]

Textbooks and dictionaries indicate the length of vowels by putting a macron or horizontal bar above the long vowel, but it is not
generally done in regular texts. Occasionally, mainly in early printed texts up to the 18th century, one may see a circumflex used to
indicate a long vowel where this makes a difference to the sense, for instance, Româ /ˈroːmaː/ ('from Rome' ablative) compared to
Roma /ˈroːma/ ('Rome' nominative).[58] Sometimes, for instance in Roman Catholic service books, an acute accent over a vowel is
used to indicate the stressed syllable. It would be redundant for one who knew the classical rules of accentuation and made the
correct distinction between long and short vowels, but most Latin speakers since the 3rd century have not made any distinction
between long and short vowels, but they have kept the accents in the same places; thus, the use of accent marks allows speakers to
read a word aloud correctly even if they never heard it spoken aloud.

Pronunciation

Post-Medieval Latin
Since around the beginning of the Renaissance period onwards, with the language being used as an international language among
intellectuals, pronunciation of Latin in Europe came to be dominated by the phonology of local languages, resulting in a variety of
different pronunciation systems.

Loan words and formal study


When Latin words are used as loanwords in a modern language, there is ordinarily little or no attempt to pronounce them as the
Romans did; in most cases, a pronunciation suiting the phonology of the receiving language is employed.

Latin words in common use in English are generally fully assimilated into the English sound system, with little to mark them as
foreign, for example, cranium, saliva. Other words have a stronger Latin feel to them, usually because of spelling features such as the
digraphs ae and oe (occasionally written as ligatures: æ and œ, respectively), which both denote /iː/ in English. The digraph ae or
ligature æ in some words tend to be given an/aɪ/ pronunciation, for example,curriculum vitae.

However, using loan words in the context of the language borrowing them is a markedly different situation from the study of Latin
itself. In this classroom setting, instructors and students attempt to recreate at least some sense of the original pronunciation. What is
taught to native anglophones is suggested by the sounds of today's Romance languages, the direct descendants of Latin. Instructors
who take this approach rationalize that Romance vowels probably come closer to the original pronunciation than those of any other
modern language (see also the section below on D
" erivative languages").

However, other languages—including Romance family members—all have their own interpretations of the Latin phonological
system, applied both to loan words and formal study of Latin. But English, Romance, or other teachers do not always point out that
the particular accent their students learn is not actually the way ancient Romans spoke.

Ecclesiastical pronunciation
Because of the central position of Rome within the Catholic Church, an Italian pronunciation of Latin became commonly accepted,
but this was not the case until the latter part of the 19th century. This pronunciation corresponds to that of the Latin-derived words in
Italian. Before then, the pronunciation of Latin in church was the same as the pronunciation as Latin in other fields and tended to
.[59]
reflect the sound values associated with the nationality of the speaker

The following are the main points that distinguish modern ecclesiastical pronunciation from Classical Latin pronunciation:

Vowel length is not phonemic. As a result, theautomatic stress accent of Classical Latin, which was dependent on
vowel length, becomes a phonemic one in Ecclesiastical Latin. (Some Ecclesiastical texts mark the stress with an
acute accent in words of three or more syllables.)
The digraphs ae and oe (sometimes written as ligaturesæ and œ) represent /ɛ/.[60]
c denotes [t͡ʃ] (as in English ⟨ch⟩) before ae (æ), oe (œ), e, i or y.
g denotes [d͡ʒ] (as in English ⟨j⟩) before ae (æ), oe (œ), e, i or y.
h is silent except in two words:mihi and nihil, where it represents /k/ (in the Middle Ages, these words were spelled
michi and nichil).[61][note 5]
s between vowels represents/z/ or /s/;[62] sc before ae (æ), oe (œ), e, i or y. represents /ʃ/.
ti, if followed by a vowel, not word-initial or stressed, and not preceded by s, t, or x represents [t͡si].[60]
the letter v when it starts a syllable is pronounced/v/, and not /w/ as in classical Latin. Betweeng or q and a vowel, it
retains the ancient /w/ pronunciation, and as a syllable nucleus, it retains/u/. Unlike in the ancient orthography, the
letter v is now written v when it is pronounced/v/, but u when it is pronounced/w/ or /u/.
th represents /t/.
ph represents /f/.
ch represents /k/.
y represents /i/.
gn represents /ɲ/.
x represents /ks/, the /s/ of which merges with a followingc that precedes ae (æ), oe (œ), e, i or y to form /ʃ/, as in
excelsis /ekˈʃelsis/[60]
z represents /dz/.
Word-final m and n are pronounced fully, with no nasalization of the preceding vowel.
In his Vox Latina: A guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin, William Sidney Allen remarked that this pronunciation, used by
the Catholic Church in Rome and elsewhere, and whose adoption Pope Pius X recommended in a 1912 letter to the Archbishop of
Bourges, "is probably less far removed from classical Latin than any other 'national' pronunciation"; but, as can be seen from the table
above, there are, nevertheless, very significant differences.[63] The introduction to the Liber Usualis indicates that Ecclesiastical
Latin pronunciation should be used at Church liturgies.[64] Ecclesiastical pronunciation is also the preferred pronunciation of
Catholics whenever speaking Latin even if not as part of liturgy. The Pontifical Academy for Latin is the pontifical academy in the
Vatican that is charged with the dissemination and education of Catholics in the Latin language.

Outside of Austria and Germany, it is the most widely used standard in choral singing which, with a few exceptions like Stravinsky's
Oedipus rex, is concerned with liturgical texts. Anglican choirs adopted it when classicists abandoned traditional English
pronunciation after World War II. The rise of historically informed performance and the availability of guides such as Copeman's
Singing in Latin has led to the recent revival ofregional pronunciations.

Pronunciation shared by Vulgar Latin and Romance languages


Because it gave rise to many modern languages, Latin did not strictly "die"; it merely evolved over the centuries in diverse ways. The
local dialects of Vulgar Latin that emerged eventually became modern Italian, Spanish, French, Romanian, Portuguese, Catalan,
Romansh, Dalmatian, Sardinian, and many others.

Key features of Vulgar Latin and Romance languages include:

Almost total loss of /h/ and final unstressed /m/.


Conversion of the distinction ofvowel length into a distinction of height, and subsequent merger of some of these
phonemes. Most Romance languages merged short/u/ with long /oː/ and short /i/ with long /eː/.
Monophthongization of /ae̯/ into /ɛː/ and /oe̯/ into /eː/.
Loss of marginal phonemes such as aspirates /pʰ/,
( /tʰ/, and /kʰ/), which became tenues, and the close front-rounded
vowel [y], which became unrounded.
Loss of /n/ before /s/[65] (CL spōnsa > VL spōsa) but this influence on the later development of Romance languages
was limited from written influence, analogy , and learned borrowings.[66]
Palatalization of /k/ before /e/ and /i/ (not in all varieties), probably first into/kʲ/ and then /tʲ/ before it finally developed
into /ts/ or /tʃ/.[67]
Palatalization of /ɡ/ before /e/ and /i/, and of /j/, into /dʒ/ (not in all varieties) and then further into/ʒ/ in some
Romance varieties.[67]
Palatalization of /ti/ followed by a vowel (if not preceded by s, t, x) into/tsj/. It merged with /ts/ in dialects in which /k/
had developed into this sound, but it remained separate elsewhere (such as Italian).
Palatalization of /li/ and /ni/ followed by a vowel into/ʎ/ and /ɲ/. /ŋn/ (orthographic gn) also coalesced to become /ɲ/.
The change of /w/ (except after /k/) and /b/ between vowels, into /β/.

Examples
The following examples are both in verse, which demonstrates several features more clearly than prose.

From Classical Latin


Virgil's Aeneid, Book 1, verses 1–4. Quantitative metre (dactylic hexameter). Translation: "I sing of arms and the man, who, driven
by fate, came first from the borders of Troy to Italy and the Lavinian shores; he [was] much afflicted both on lands and on the deep
by the power of the gods, because of fierce Juno's vindictive wrath."

[note 6]
1. Ancient Roman orthography (before 2nd century)
0:00
ARMA·VIRVMQVE·CANÓ·TRÓIAE·QVꟾ·PRꟾMVS·ABÓRꟾS
ꟾTALIAM·FÁTÓ·PROFVGVS·LÁVꟾNIAQVE·VÉNIT Recording of first four lines of Aeneid
LꟾTORA·MVLTVM·ILLE·ETTERRꟾS·IACTÁTVS·ETALTÓ
in reconstructed Classical Latin
Vꟾ·SVPERVM·SAEVAE·MEMOREM·IVNÓNIS·OBꟾRAM
pronunciation
2. Traditional (19th century) English orthography

Arma virúmque cano, Trojæ qui primus ab oris


Italiam, fato profugus, Lavíniaque venit
Litora; multùm ille et terris jactatus et alto
Vi superum, sævæ memorem Junonis ob iram.

3. Modern orthography with macrons

Arma virumque canō, Trōiae quī prīmus ab ōrīs


Ītaliam, fātō profugus, Lāvīniaque vēnit
Lītora; multum ille et terrīs iactātus et altō
Vī superum, saevae memorem Iūnōnis ob īram.

4. Modern orthography without macrons

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris


Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit
Litora; multum ille et terris iactatus et alto
Vi superum, saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram.

5. [Reconstructed] Classical Roman pronunciation

[ˈarma wɪˈrũːkᶣɛ ˈkanoː | ˈtroːjae̯ | kᶣiː ˈpriːmʊs aˈboːriːs |


iːˈtaliãː | ˈfaːtoː ˈprɔfʊɡʊs | laːˈwiːnjakᶣɛ ˈweːnɪt
ˈliːtɔra ‖ ˈmʊɫtᶣ ɪ̃ll ɛt ˈtɛrriːs jakˈtaːtʊs | ɛˈtaɫtoː
wiː ˈsʊpærũː | ˈsae̯wae̯ ˈmɛmɔrẽː juːˈnoːnɪs ɔˈbiːrãː]

Note the elisions in mult(um) and ill(e) in the third line. For a fuller discussion of the prosodic features of this passage, see Dactylic
hexameter.

Some manuscripts have "Lāvīna" rather than "Lāvīnia" in the second line.
From Medieval Latin
Beginning of Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium by Thomas Aquinas (13th century). Rhymed accentual metre. Translation:
"Extol, [my] tongue, the mystery of the glorious body and the precious blood, which the fruit of a noble womb, the king of nations,
poured out as the price of the world."

1. Traditional orthography as in Roman Catholic service books (stressed syllable marked with an acute accent on words of three
syllables or more).

Pange lingua gloriósi


Córporis mystérium,
Sanguinísque pretiósi,
quem in mundi prétium
fructus ventris generósi
Rex effúdit géntium.

2. "Italianate" ecclesiastical pronunciation

[ˈpandʒe ˈliŋɡwa ɡloriˈoːzi


ˈkɔrporis misˈtɛːrium
saŋɡwiˈniskwe prettsiˈoːzi
kwem in ˈmundi ˈprɛttsium
ˈfruktus ˈvɛntris dʒeneˈroːzi
rɛks efˈfuːdit ˈdʒentsium

See also
Latin alphabet
Latin grammar
Latin regional pronunciation
Traditional English pronunciation of Latin
Deutsche Aussprache des Lateinischen(in German) – traditional German pronunciation
Schulaussprache des Lateinischen(in German) – revised "school" pronunciation
Französische Aussprache des Lateins(in German) - traditional French pronunciation

Notes
1. APPIVS CL AVDIVS
C(AI) F(ILIVS) CAECVS
CENSOR CO(N)S(VL) BIS DICT(A TOR) INTERREX III
PR(AETOR) II AED(ILIS) CVR(VLIS) II Q(VAESTOR) TR(IB VNVS) MIL(ITVM) III COM(-)
PLVRA OPPIDA DE( )S AMNITIBVS CEPIT
SABINORVM ET TVSCÓR VM EXERCI(-)
TVM FVDIT P ÁCEM FIERÍ CVM P YRRHO
REGE PROHIB VIT IN CENSVR A VIAM
APPIAM STR AVIT ETAQVAM IN
VRBEM( )ADD VXIT AEDEM BELL ONAE
FECIT

2. epistula ad tiburtes, a letter by praetor Lucius Cornelius from 159 BC, contains the first examples of doubled
consonants in the wordspotuisse, esse, and peccatum (Clackson & Horrocks 2007, pp. 147, 149).
3. The simplification was already common in rural speech as far back as the time of
Varro (116 BC – 27 BC): cf.De
lingua Latina, 5:97 (referred to in Smith 2004, p. 47).
4. This approach is also recommended in thehelp page for the Latin Wikipedia.
5. This pronunciation of mihi and nihil may have been an attempt to reintroduce/h/ intervocalically, where it seems to
have been lost even in literary Latin by the end of the Republican periodSmith
( 2004, p. 48) as indicated by the
alternative Classical spellingsmī and nīl.
6. "The word-divider is regularly found on all good inscriptions, in papyri, on wax tablets, and even graffiti
in from the
earliest Republican times through the Golden Age and well into the Second Century . ... Throughout these periods
the word-divider was a dot placed half-way between the upper and the lower edge of the line of writing. ... As a rule,
interpuncta are used simply to divide words, except that prepositions are only rarely separated from the word they
govern, if this follows next. ... The regular use of the interpunct as a word-divider continued until sometime in the
Second Century, when it began to fall into disuse, and Latin was written with increasing frequency , both in papyrus
and on stone or bronze, inscriptura continua." Wingo 1972, pp. 15, 16

References
1. Sihler 1995, pp. 20–22, §25: the Italic alphabets
2. Allen 1978, p. 25
3. Allen 1978, p. 17
4. Allen 1978, pp. 19, 20
5. Allen 1978, pp. 26, 27
6. Clackson & Horrocks 2007, p. 190
7. Allen 1978, pp. 12, 13
8. Levy, p. 150
9. Allen 1978, pp. 45, 46
10. Allen 1978, pp. 35–37
11. Allen 1978, pp. 34, 35
12. Lloyd 1987, p. 80
13. Lloyd 1987, p. 81
14. Allen 1978, pp. 30, 31
15. Lloyd 1987, p. 84
16. Allen 1978, pp. 27–30
17. Allen 1978, pp. 23–25
18. Allen & Greenough 2001, §10d
19. Allen 1978, pp. 71–73
20. Allen 1978, p. 33
21. Allen 1978, pp. 33, 34
22. Sihler 1995, p. 174, §176 a: allophones ofl in Latin
23. Allen 1978, pp. 37–40
24. Allen 1978, pp. 40–42
25. Allen 1978, p. 11
26. Allen 1978, p. 42
27. Allen 1978, pp. 15, 16
28. Allen 1978, p. 45
29. Allen & Greenough, §1a
30. Clackson & Horrocks 2007, p. 96
31. Allen 1978, p. 15
32. Allen 1978, p. 23
33. Sturtevant 1920, pp. 115–116
34. Allen & Greenough 2001, §6d, 11c
35. Allen 1978, pp. 47–49
36. Allen 1978, p. 51
37. Allen 1978, pp. 51, 52
38. Allen 1978, p. 52
39. Allen 1978, p. 56
40. Allen 1978, p. 59
41. Clackson 2008, p. 77
42. Allen 1978, pp. 55, 56
43. Ward 1962
44. Clackson & Horrocks 2007, pp. 273, 274
45. Allen 1978, pp. 65
46. Sihler 2008, p. 174.
47. Allen 2004, pp. 33–34
48. Fortson 2004, p. 254
49. Sturtevant 1920, pp. 207–218
50. Allen 1978, p. 83
51. Allen 1978, p. 87
52. Allen & Greenough 2001, §11
53. Allen et al.
54. Allen 1978, pp. 89–92
55. Allen 1978, p. 86
56. Allen & Greenough 2001, p. 400, section 612 e, f
57. Gor example, Henri Estienne'sDictionarium, seu Latinae linguae thesaurus(1531)
58. Gilbert 1939
59. Brittain 1955.
60. Liber Usualis (http://www.musicasacra.com/pdf/liberusualis.pdf), p. xxxviij
61. Introduction to the Liber Usualis
62. Robinson, Ray (1993).Up front!: becoming the complete choral conductor . p. 192. ISBN 9780911318197. "Not all
authorities agree that s between vowels in Church Latin should be voiced. Of the sources cited in the bibliography
,
Hines, May/Tolin and Wall prefer the voiced s"
63. Allen 1978, p. 108
64. Liber Usualis (http://www.musicasacra.com/pdf/liberusualis.pdf), p. xxxvj
65. Allen 1978, pp. 28–29
66. Allen 1978, p. 119
67. Pope 1952, chapter 6, §4

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Neidermann, Max (1945) [1906]. Précis de phonétique historique du latin (2 ed.). Paris.
McCullagh, Matthew (2011). "The Sounds of Latin: Phonology". In James Clackson. A Companion
to the Latin Language. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1405186056.
Pekkanen, Tuomo (1999). Ars grammatica—Latinan kielioppi (in Finnish and Latin) (3rd-6th ed.).
Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. ISBN 951-570-022-1.
Pope Pius X (November 22, 1903). "Tra le Sollecitudini". Rome, Italy: Adoremus. Retrieved
15 June 2013.
Pope, M. K. (1952) [1934]. From Latin to Modern French with especial consideration of Anglo-
Norman (revised ed.). Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Sihler, Andrew L. (1995). New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. ISBN 0-19-508345-8.
Smith, Jane Stuart (2004). Phonetics and Philology: Sound Change in Italic. Oxford University
Press. ISBN 0-19-925773-6.
Sturtevant, Edgar Howard (1920). The pronunciation of Greek and Latin. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.

Ward, Ralf L. (June 1962). "Evidence For ThePronunciation Of Latin".The Classical World. 55 (9): 273–275.
doi:10.2307/4344896. JSTOR 4344896.
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Further reading
Hall, William Dawson, and Michael De Angelis. 1971.Latin Pronunciation According to Roman Usage.Anaheim, CA:
National Music Publishers.
Trame, Richard H. 1983. "A Note On Latin Pronunciation." The Choral Journal 23, no. 5: 29.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23546146.Copy

External links
PHONETICA L ATINÆ :Classical and ecclesiastical Latin pronunciation with audio examples
"Ecclesiastical Latin". Catholic Encyclopedia. 1910.
Lord, Frances Ellen (2007) [1894].The Roman Pronunciation of Latin: Why we use it and how to use .itGutenberg
Project.

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