There is no universal answer to how you should pronounce Latin. In the first place, it is because it was spoken for a long period of time, so its pronunciation evolved, as the other aspects of the language. Moreover, the Catholic Church has developed its own pronunciation system, called ecclestiastical Latin. It is up to your personal preference which one you want to use.
However, we will focus on the one from the period of the golden age of the Latin language and literature, previously mentioned as the classical period. (roughly from 1st century B.C. to 3rd century A.D.). That pronunciation is called classical pronunciation.
First of all, the pronunciation of Latin is phonetic, which means that each letter represents one sound that needs to be pronounced.
Let’s start with the vowels.
- a: pronounced like "a" in "father"
- e: pronounced like "e" in "bed"
- i: pronounced like "i" in "machine"
- o: pronounced like "o" in "go"
- u: pronounced like "oo" in "boot"
Consonants:
- b, d, f, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z: pronounced like their English counterparts.
- c: pronounced like "k".
- g: pronounced like in "get".
- h: always pronounced, but very lightly.
- j: pronounced like "y" in "yes".
- k: pronounced like "k".
- q: pronounced like "kw".
- r: pronounced with a trill or flap (like the "r" in Spanish or Italian).
- s: always pronounced like "s" (never like "z").
- t: pronounced with a hard stop, like "t" in "stop".
- z: pronounced like "z" (never like "s").
Vowel length
In Latin, vowels can be either long or short, and this affects the meaning or (more frequently) function of words. Some vowel sounds are always long or short, while others can be either depending on the word or its form.
Stress
In Latin, the stress of a word usually falls on the second-last syllable (the penultimate syllable) if that syllable is long (i.e. contains a long vowel or a diphthong), or on the third-last syllable (the antepenultimate syllable) if the penultimate syllable is short.
For example, in the word "pater" (father), the stress falls on the first syllable because it is the only syllable in the word and it is long. In the word "puer" (boy), the stress falls on the first syllable because the second syllable is short and the first syllable is therefore the antepenultimate syllable. In the word "laboro" (I work), the stress falls on the second syllable because it is long, and in the word "regina" (queen), the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable because it is long.
However, there are some exceptions to this general rule, particularly in loanwords from Greek or other languages, which may have their own stress patterns. Additionally, in poetry and music, the stress may be manipulated for the purposes of meter or rhythm.
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