How do you pronounce Latin?

[Maciamo]

What I am wondering is which pronunciation is better to use for Latin names of species. Should scientific Latin sound more like classical or ecclesiastical Latin?

 

[Wheal]

This might be simplistic, but I find that many words and names are written as they are heard and not as they were correctly spelled.

 

[Angela]

What I am wondering is which pronunciation is better to use for Latin names of species. Should scientific Latin sound more like classical or ecclesiastical Latin?

This is the situation currently in the U.S. so far as I know. I don't think anyone has ever used the "church" Latin pronunciation for scientific "names". Neither, to my knowledge, have they used the "academic" imputed pronunciation. I think it's acknowledged that the "traditional" pronunciation was never spoken by anyone, but as its name implies, it's been used by English speakers for a long time so I doubt scientists will change over because some Latin specialists tell them they've figured out how Latin was actually pronounced at one specific place and time.
http://www.scientificlatin.org/botnamesay.html

I don't know how it is in Europe because I never studied science there.

 

[Angela]

What I am wondering is which pronunciation is better to use for Latin names of species. Should scientific Latin sound more like classical or ecclesiastical Latin?

Sorry, duplicate.

 

[MOESAN]

@A.Papadimitriou, @Ygorcs

I don't see why at some stage the latin 'v'='u' would not have been pronounced /w/ -
but it exists a large enough space between the very rounded /w/ and the labiodental /v/, BI a less rounded /w/ where lips tend to close, and a bilabial /v/, less "clear" than the surely more modern labiodental /v/ (I ignore the new IPA symbols to render these nuances).
observing some dialects, it seems the tendancy of /w/ to turn into /v/ is stronger in frontal vocalic environment (or "palatal") so that people pronouncing still /w/ before 'a', 'o', when they pronounce bilabial /v/ before 'i', 'y' ('?'), 'e', this evolution is taking place just now in some 'vannetais breton' dialects.
it's possible that the reconstructed 'w' of PIE was already rather close/tight enough, and the open well rounded /w/ is maybe a later evolution in some dialects when the contrary occurred (/w/ -> /v/) in other ones? in modern languages of IE origin, the supposed 'w' is become 'v' in the majority of cases (German, some Dutch dialects, Scandinavian, the most of the Romances, Slavics of any sort except, maybe, Slovenian... and Indo-Iranians tongues if I dont mistake). The zone of better conservation of supposed old /w/ is Britain, Belgium and Northern-Northwestern France, I think, and Brittany in some way.

 

[Vallicanus]

To my ear the classical pronunciation is uglier, and even ecclesiastical Latin is uglier than Italian, but I suppose my tastes have been molded by having Italian as my natal language.

I only studied Latin here; it's a big deal still in the many Catholic high schools, but it was the classical Latin pronunciation which was taught, despite the fact that it was nuns teaching it.

A neighbor's son majored in Latin and Classical Studies at university and gave the commencement address in Latin. I can't find it on youtube for some reason, but this one is good too. (For practicality's sake he minored in math, landing a job at a hedge fund. He broke the hearts of his Latin professor's however, who wanted him to pursue an academic career.) For some reason, all the Latin scholars and Classics scholars, for that matter, have been male, so it was nice to see this girl.

Classical Latin seems strong and powerful to me, not "ugly" at all.

 

[Georges]

I never understood the point of learning Cicero in ecclesiastical/medieval Latin.

I never understood the point of reading more recent texts and tree names with a fossilised pronunciation. Classical Latin was spoken for how long? 500 years? I can't believe the pronunciation had not evolved with the centuries.

By the time my ancestors were Romanised, their new language was already post-classic.

To my ear the classical pronunciation is uglier, and even ecclesiastical Latin is uglier than Italian, but I suppose my tastes have been molded by having Italian as my natal language.

Indeed, classical pronunciation seems ugly to me too.

I've heard somewhere that the Romance languages of the Balkans are closest living thing to the Latin language spoken in the Roman Empire!

First of all, "Balkans" is a big word. The Carpathian mountains are a natural border between mid-Europe and the Balkans. And the Romanian language developped in Transylvania. So no "Balkans", please.

Yes, as Qu?becois French is more genuine than Parisian French, so is Romanian closer to the "source". The dialects of the migration are always more conservative than those of the place of origin.

 

[MOESAN]

The Latin V is a complex to me,

the reason is gramtically at the end of the word fits with Greek υ ου

the is the posessive case, which ment the father's son = father possesion
like Scans have -son
for example Peter Peter-son
in Greek was Petros Petrou Πετρου
yet in many Aromanian and S Slavic is -οv
while in Romanian stays as -ou
So In correct Greek son of Petros as family name is Petrou
as also in Romanian (Latin language) is Petrou
but in S Slavic and in some Aromanian is Petrov
while in most East to Russia turns to Petroff

my wonder is could the S Slavic end -ov cognate with Greek possesive family name ending -ου, and have origin from Deocletian rules
while the S Slavic -ic seems more Slavic or Thracian, than Greek -ικος
so could Latin V to have simmilar sound with Greek Y?

velocity uelocity


ok for fun
Learn Latin as Monty pythons did.

Hi! aside post of mine
I read your post very lately (sometimes I crossread some threads and "jump over" some of their posts, sorry.
This question of Greek '-ou' ending /u/, '-ov' Slavic ending, is curious to me. Because in Breton we have very often an ending '-ou' or '-o' (ancient /ow/, pronounced todate, according to stress place in dialects: /u//o//ow//ëü//aü/...) added to surnames, without any clear explanation for this presence: ancient genitive? - plural added to mark the family group?- 'hypocoristic' (~ diminutive or familiar form)? It corresponds phonetically to a plural ending for objects/things, but in Breton the plural endings for personal names are different so... But this kind of ending is absent in Cornish and Welsh tongues; ATW the "genitive" option seems the better one?

 

[Questions]

Romans say they were Trojan

We do not know exactly how the ancient Romans pronounced Latin.

The Romans say they were Trojan.

"Æneas, with the view of conciliating the affection of the Aborigines, that he might be the better able to oppose such formidable enemies, gave to both the nations under his rule the name of Latines, that all should not only be governed by the same laws, but have one common name."--Livy, History of Rome

But the Aborigines spoke Latin.

Since the Romans were invaders, they took the language of the conquested... and probably pronounced Latin with a Trojan accent.