Lesson 1~~~Pronunciation

Salvete, discipuli! (Hello, students!)

Welcome to Lesson 1~Pronunciation of Latin
For this course, I will be using Classical Latin pronunciation, not Ecclesiastical. But I will say that the main difference is that Ecclesiastical Latin is pronounced like Italian.
So, on to the pronunciation of Classical Latin. Let's start with the 5 vowels and 6 dipthongs. (Dipthongs are a combination of 2 vowels that make a single sound.)
~N.B. (=Nota Bene=Note Well=Pay Attention): Vowels in Latin have two sounds, Long and Short. Long vowels are marked by a macron (small line over the top of the vowel.) Since I cannot do this on the internet with any great ease, they will be posted in bold type.~
Short Vowels:
a= u as in put
e= e as in pen
i= i as in pin
o= o as in pot
u= u as in full

Long Vowels:
a= a as in father
e= ay as in pay
i= ee as in keen
o= o as in hope
u= oo as in spoon

Dipthongs:
ae= y as in try
au= ow as in town
ei= ayee as in payee (possibly not a word, but you get the idea.)
oe= oy as in toy
oi= uey as in gluey

And now for consonants.
The ancient Latin alphabet was basically the same as our own. They did not have a j, v, or a w.
In ancient Latin, the vowel u would represent a w sound. In more recent times, the letter v has been substituted to do this job.
Only consonants and consonant groups that have different sounds compared to English will be listed.
bs= ps
bt= pt
c= c as in cat, never as in city
g= g as in go, never as in giant
i= when between two vowels or at the beginning of a word and followed by a vowel, i makes a y sound
qu= qu as in quail
r= rolled as in the Romance Languages
v= w as in wine
w= only appears in Latinized forms of some modern names, i.e. Westmonasterium=Westminister
x= ks
y and z= only appear in words of Greek origin
ph and th= are normally (but unhistorically) given their English equivalents of phone and thatch respectively.

And finally, stress.
There is never a silent vowel in Latin. There is one vowel or dipthong per syllable.
Consonants always go with the following syllable. (Ex. amare- a-ma-ray) Two or more consonants are divided down the middle, whether they are the same or different.
There is a basic rule, called the Rule of the Penultimate.
Only the last 3 syllables concern us in a Latin word when determining primary stress. The last syllable is called the ultima, the second-to-last is called the penult, and the third-to-last is called the antepenult. Remember that.
Now, a syllable is long in two ways:
A. by nature (it contains a long vowel.)
B. by position (the vowel in it is followed by two or more consonants.)
If the penult is long, it gets the stress. If it is short, the antepenult gets the stress. Simple, no?

Next time we will cover the 8 Fabulous Parts of Speech!!! Hooray!!!!!!!

Valete, (Goodbye,)
Magister (Latin word for a male teacher.)