LATIN PRONUNCIATION

The language of Gregorian chant is Latin. Since its restoration, which occurred in the 19th
century, within the liturgy of the Church, the popes advised that the Roman pronunciation of
Latin be adopted.

Below, we present some pronunciation rules for Latin texts.

Diphthongs

ae, oe They are made in a single sound and are pronounced e:

maríae=marie, moestus=mestus.

ouch, The two vowels are pronounced with their own sound but in a
ouch single voice emission. autem= au-tem, euge= eu-ge. The a with the
u always forms a diphthong: laudamus= lau-damus, pauper=pau-
per.

eu They do not form a diphthong when this last letter is not constant
in the declension: meus=me-us (genitive is mei in which the u
disappears).

Except as noted, two vowels always belong to different syllables,

which is why they must be pronounced separately: tría=trí-a,
ruínas=ru-inas, fuérunt=fu-érunt.

what, The u that follows the q or the g is always voiced. quacumque=cua-

whoa cum-cue, quaero=cu-ero, qui=cu-i.

pinguédinem=pin-güé-dinem, sanguis=san-güis.

Consonants

c The C in front of e, i, ae, oe is pronounced like the Spanish ch .

Caecilia=Chechília, coelum=chelum.

DC When the double C is found in front of these vowels, it is

pronounced kch: ecce=ekche; accípite=akchípite.

CH It has a k sound: cháritas=káritas, Melchísedec=Melkísedec.

g In front of the e, i has the same sound as in French ( Y softened ):

genus, pangimus.

G.N. It sounds like the ñ in Spanish: agnus=añus,

magnitudeo=mañitudo.

h It has the k sound in the dative mihi=miki, and in the adverb

nihil=nikil with its compounds nihilóminus=nikilóminus. In other
cases the h is silent.

J. It sounds like the y in Spanish; major=major, Jesus=Yesus

L.L. It is pronounced as two separate Ls : nullus=nul-lus,

 tranquillitas=trancuíl-litas.

M You have to be careful so that it doesn't sound like N. Dóminu m

no Dóminun, i m mémor no inmémor.

PH It has the same sound as the f in Spanish: phase=phase,

philosóphia=filosófia.

H.H Same as the s in Spanish: missa, pásser.

S.C. In front of e and i , it has the same sound as the French ch :

Scientia, descéndo

T When the syllable ti is preceded and followed by a vowel, it sounds

like ts : étiam=étsiam, grátias=grátsias.

If it is preceded by an s or an x, the t has the same sound as in

Spanish: quaéstio= question, mixtio=mixtio.

V It should be differentiated from b by bringing the lower lip closer

to the edge of the teeth.

x In front of the vowel, cs sounds: condúxit=conducsit,

genuflexo=genuflecso.

XC When they precede the vowels e, i, the x sounds like k and the c
like the French ch : excélsis=ekchélsis, excípias=ekchípias.

Z It is pronounced like the soft s with a t being heard: zona=tsona,

zizánia=tsitsánia.

The Latin vowel system

«The vowel system of archaic Latin, perpetuated in the literary language, was made up of ten
phonemes that we can define by three distinctive features: opening, place of articulation and
quantity.

The degrees of opening were three: closed (or high) (/i/ /i:/ /u/ /u:/), medium (/e/ /e:/ /o/ /o:/) and
open (o bass) (/a/ /a:/). Furthermore, the palatal – or front – vowels (/i/ /i:/ /e/ /e:/) were
distinguished from the velar – or back – vowels (/u/ /u:/ /o/ /o:/) , while two vowels were neither
palatal nor velar (/a/ /a:/). Each point in the system was occupied by two elements, which were
differentiated by quantity (that is, duration, indicated here by the presence or absence of ":"); /i:,
e:, a:, o:, u:/ were long, while /i, e, a, o, u/ were short. Therefore the system can be represented
schematically as follows:

palatal Velars
Closed /i:/ /i/ /u:/ /u/
 Socks /e:/ /e/ /o:/ /o/
/a:/ /a/
open

However, the graphic convention of Latin generally ignored differences in quantity and used
only five letters, each of which could represent either a long or a short phoneme. (Later
grammarians established an orthographic distinction, placing the sign (ˉ) over the long vowel
and the sign (˘) over the short one; in this manual we omit this last mark.) But, despite the
quantitative differences between the vowels were reflected in the writing, this was a distinctive
feature, as demonstrated by the following examples:

H Ī C “here” <> HIC “this”

L Ī BER “free” <> LIBR “book”
L Ē VIS “smooth” <> LEVIS “light”
V Ē NIT “he came” <> VENIT “he comes”
M Ā LUM “apple” <> MALUM “bad”
Ō S “mouth” <> OS “bone”
P Ō PULUS “poplar” <> POPULUS “town”

Along with these ten vowels, literary Latin also knew three diphthongs (combination of two
vowel elements in a single syllable): AE [ai], and AU [AU].

It is likely that, in articulatory terms, the long vowel was a little closer than the short one in each
pair of phonemes that shared the “same” place of articulation – that is, the quantitative
distinctive feature would be accompanied by a redundant opening feature - ; In fact, a similar
relative closing of long vowels is generally observed in many modern languages. [...]

The system just described seems to have persisted in learned speech; However, the vocalism of
spoken Latin gradually underwent a series of fundamental changes. The first of them (occurring
no later than the 1st century AD. C.) was the loss of the distinctive feature of quantity: the
functional load of this feature was transferred to that of openness, until then redundant. [...]

The second fundamental change that occurred in the vocalism of spoken Latin is related to the
nature of the accent. [...]

The system of nine vowels that arose after the loss of oppositions based on the quantity feature
was particularly unstable - and, therefore, susceptible to modification -, as, on the other hand,
occurs with any system that depends on the distinction between five degrees of opening. In fact,
the acoustic difference was probably too small for the elements of the system to be
differentiated with absolute precision. There is clear evidence that the confusion between
degrees of openness three and four had already occurred in the 1st century AD. The vowel
system resulting from these changes, a system of seven units, is called the “Vulgar Latin vowel
system”, since it was used in much of Latin America, including the Iberian Peninsula. Now,
despite such a name for the vowel system that gave rise to those of Western romances, the truth
is that it was not the only one that existed. There was the archaic (or Sardinian) system, the
asymmetric (or oriental) and the marginal (or suditalic) system.

[Penny, Ralph: Historical Spanish Grammar . Barcelona: Ariel, 2001, p. 39 ff.]

The diphthong ae in classical and vulgar Latin

The vowel groups ae and oe were pronounced, at least until the end of the Republic and by
educated Romans well into the Empire, as diphthongs, placing the stress on the first vowel and
pronouncing the second as closed. In German schools these diphthongs continued to be
transcribed with the umlaut vowels ä and ö , even when northern Germany returned to the old
pronunciation of classical Latin c as k . Thus Julius Caesar is pronounced “Käsar”, instead of
the traditional form used by all historiographers “Zäsar”.

From the Latin “Julius Caesar” comes the German “Kaiser”, which means 'emperor'. It seems
that “Kaiser” is the oldest calque that German took from Latin, already before the Christian era,
at a time when Latin still pronounced the vowel group ae as a diphthong. The word did not pass
into the Romance languages, which took the word imperator to designate the emperor (fr.
empereur ).

The Slavic word Tsar (used by Russians, Serbs and Bulgarians) to designate the Sovereign,
comes from the Bulgarian car , from the Old Slavonic *c ě sar , which in turn comes from the
Gothic kaisar .

It was Pliny who propagated the legend that Julius Caesar was removed from his mother's
womb by an operation (lat. caedere, caesum , 'to extract by operation', 'to cut'). Based on this
legend, in the Middle Ages the term cesarean section was coined in medicine, which in German
is called “Kaiserschnitt”, in the sense of 'section through which the fetus is released through the
abdominal and uterine walls'.

«That as far as Latin and Romance languages are concerned, the terms vulgar, rustic and
ancient are not in opposition to each other, is well demonstrated to us, among other things, by
the diphthongs ae and au . As for the first, the continuations of the lat. ae are the same as the
Latin ĕ (cf. for example lat. caelum > it. heaven , fr. ciel , cast. sky , with lat. pedem > it. piede ,
fr. pied , cast. foot ); Therefore, ae in Vulgar Latin must have become ę . But this vulgarism in
Latin is at the same time ancient and rustic. The monophthongization of ae in ę is an Umbrian
dialectalism, and was carried out in prehistoric times. From the countryside it made its way to
the usual language of Rome, where it was already present before the 2nd century BC. The
vowel ę of the usual language appears in the literary language, instead of ae , in the popular
Plautus (264-194 BC. C). Lucilius (died 103 BC) mocks this rustic pronunciation (“ Cecilius
pretor ne rusticus fiat”) and Varro (116-27 BC) observes that “Latio rure edus qui in urbe
haedus ”. The rustic pronunciation was imitated in Rome by cultured circles. But the following
Romance words: fr. foin , esp. hay , ant. port. feio ; fr. soie , esp. silk , it. mushroom , port. silk ;
ant. fr. soif , rét. (eng.) saif , prov. sep , esp. and port. sebe , which can continue not the forms
with ę but those with but those with ẹ , come respectively from f ẹ num, s ẹ ta, s ẹ pes , that is,
from the Volsco-Faliscan forms of faenum, saeta, saepes , de So the Romance languages
continue two very ancient Latin vulgarisms that are both of rustic origin ( ae > ę Umbrian, ae >
ẹ Volsco-Falisco).»

[Vidos, B. E.: Manual of Romance Linguistics . Madrid: Aguilar, 1968, p. 184 s.]

«The inconstancy of the cases cited in the Romance languages confirms the insecurity that
existed in the language commonly used in Rome with respect to this rustic pronunciation, and at
the same time demonstrates that any way of proceeding schematically that attempted to put the
rustic and the cultured pronunciation one against another in rigid opposition, would be
methodologically wrong, due to the individual nature of each particular case.

Summarizing our argument, we can affirm, therefore, that vulgarisms such as ĭ > ę , ŭ > æ , ae
> ę , ae > ẹ , au > æ , which are of very ancient dialectal origin, were accepted by all social
groups in Roman society in the so-called Vulgar Latin, which, properly speaking, is nothing
other than the language spoken by all strata of the population and at all times of Latinity.

That this spoken language could not be the same for all social strata of the Roman population,
and that the patricians, for example, spoke among themselves and in the Senate in a different
way from that of the gardeners of the Appian Way or the gladiators. in the taverns of the
Suburra, it is clear. [either. cit., p. 187]

The evolution of Latin

literary latin

Four periods are usually considered that correspond to those of Latin literature.

Ancient period (240-70 BC)

It is set between 240 to 70 BC It includes the authors Ennius, Plautus and Terence.

Golden or classical age (70 BC-14 AD)

It covers practically the first century BC, or from the year 70 BC. until 14 AD This period
includes the prose writers Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43
BC) and Titus Livy (59 BC-17 AD), the poets Gaius Valerius Catullus (87-54 BC), Titus
Lucretius Carus (98-55 BC), Publius Virgilio Marón (70-19 BC), Quintus Horacio Flaccus
(65-8 BC) and Publius Ovidio Nasón (43 BC-17 AD). At this time the language reached the
highest levels of artistic expression both in prose and verse and allowed enormous richness and
flexibility.

Parallel to Classical Latin (“Golden Age”), a highly codified and highly rigid language, the
language of conversation was developed in Rome, used in human relations, both by educated
people and by less enlightened people. In the 19th century, Hugo Schuchardt in his work Der
Vokalismus der Vulgärlateins (Leipzig, 1866) coined the term Vulgar Latin to designate this
Colloquial Latin .

Vulgar Latin gradually distanced itself from the written language, encompassing the family
sphere and ordinary conversation. It was not inferior to Classical Latin, but the language of
Rome, with all the energy of a living language. Vulgar Latin or Spoken Latin gradually
evolved until it became what we call Romance Languages today.

Silver Age (14-130 AD)

It goes from the year 14 to 130 AD. It is characterized by allowing rhetorical and ornamental
expression, as well as concision and epigram, all of which are found in the work of the
philosopher and playwright Seneca and in the writings of the historian Tacitus.

Bronze Age or late period (II-VI century)

It extends from the 2nd to the 6th century (c. 636), which includes the literature of the holy
fathers of the Church, also called the Patristic. At that time, with the invasion of the barbarians,
numerous lexical and syntactic loans were introduced into the language; This form of Latin has
been called Lingua Latina as opposed to Lingua Romana , which is the way this language is
studied.

Medieval Latin or ecclesiastical Latin (Middle Ages)

During the Middle Ages, correspondence in Western Europe was written in Latin. The Latin
language used in this period is called Medieval Latin or Low Latin . It was a living language
even for uneducated people who did not speak it, because it was the language used by the
Church both in daily worship and in writing. However, it underwent many changes: the syntax
was simplified, numerous neologisms of diverse origins were adopted and many words changed
their meaning.

Modern Latin or the new Latin (Renaissance)

What has become known as Modern Latin appears in the 15th and 16th centuries. The authors
of the Renaissance gave rise to a new literature in Latin that imitated the style of classical
authors, especially that of Cicero. At that time almost all scientific, philosophical and religious
books were written in Latin. Erasmus of Rotterdam , the English philosopher Francis Bacon
and the physicist of the same nationality Isaac Newton wrote in Latin, and it was also the
language in which diplomatic communication between European nations took place.

At the end of the 17th century it lost its status as an international language. However, during
the 18th and 19th centuries it was still preserved as a language for classical studies, and some
treatises were even written in Latin during the 20th century . Even today the Catholic Church
uses it as an official language in its documents, especially in papal encyclicals.

In the teaching of this language, several forms of pronunciation have been accepted that usually
adapt to the pronunciation of each of the European languages derived from Latin, the most
widespread is the one used by the Catholic Church , very similar to that of Italian.

What is taught today is a reconstruction of the Latin of Cicero's time. The academic
pronunciation is based on that fixed in the so-called pronuntiatio restituta .

THE RENAISSANCE

Antonio de Nebrija (1444-1522) was the first modern European to critically reconstruct the
pronunciations of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. His Introductiones Latinae , which he had
published in 1481, became the most important text written until then on that subject and became
a manual for students until the 19th century. In De vi ac potestate litterarum ('On the strength
and power of the letters of the alphabet', 1486) Nebrija undertakes the systematic analysis of the
phonetics of Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Nebrija was "the first to open a store in the Latin
language and dared to put up a banner for new precepts", "the one who banished from our Spain
the barbarisms that had been bred in the Latin language" (Juan del Encina), "the debelator of the
"barbaric."

Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1467-1536), originally called Geert Geertsz, was the
greatest humanist of the Renaissance and without a doubt the most elegant and acute writer of
his time. Among his works written in Latin, the following stand out: In Praise of Folly (1511);
Colloquiums (1518), a work whose purpose was to facilitate the learning of Latin for students;
The Ciceronian (1527).

« Nebrija maintained, with ideas of his time, that the letters (the figures) had their own or
legitimate and borrowed or illegitimate pronunciations, because in their origin there was a
natural relationship between the letter and its sound. Their own were the ones they had in Latin,
since they had been invented to represent their sounds; The Castilian ones were their own or not
according to whether or not they preserved the Latin pronunciation.
[Alonso, Amado: From medieval to modern pronunciation in Spanish. Madrid: Gredos, 1969,
vol. 2 P. 198]

«The majority of modern languages coincided with the fullness of the Renaissance , which
increased the use of Latin among the learned. On the one hand, the medieval tradition
maintained the use of Latin in doctrinal works, as the common language of the civilized world;
On the other hand, the humanists aspired to revive the elegant Latin of Cicero. Nebrija himself,
who began the study of our language; Luis Vives, García Matamoros, exalter of Hispanic
knowledge; Fox Morcillo, Arias Montano, Luis de León and many others composed some or all
of their works in Latin. Only the field of novelistic and love literature, disdained by serious
spirits, was granted without dispute to the native language.

In any case, the nationalist exaltation that accompanied the creation of modern States could not
help but be reflected in their greater appreciation of national languages. The greater linguistic
awareness led to questions about the origin of the new languages, which was generally
explained as a “corruption” of Latin due to the mixtures of peoples. A curious aspect of this
attitude consisted of underlining the similarity between the maternal romance and Latin: the
former would be all the more illustrious the closer it was to the language of Cicero.

[Lapesa, Rafael: History of the Spanish language . Madrid: Escelicer, 1968, p. 202-203]

«The most illustrious Renaissanceists reconstructed the ancient pronunciations of Greek and
Latin and tried to impose them in university classrooms. In Spain, the oldest was Antonio de
Nebrija ( Introductiones latinae , 1481), and the reconstructed pronunciations came to be called
“ Erasmist ”, due to the methodical virtues of the famous Dialogue of Erasmus , 1528, and for
the promising patronage of the personality of the author: De recta Latini Graecique sermonis
pronuntiatione, Des. Erasmi Roterodami Dialogus . Anno MDXXVIII, Basel. But the scholarly
enterprise was not successful, and each country continued to pronounce Latin and Greek with
the phonetics of the respective national languages, except for some details.

[Alonso, Amado: From medieval to modern pronunciation in Spanish. Madrid: Gredos, 1969,
vol. 2 P. 177]

Latin after the Renaissance

Nebrija and Erasmus were the first in the Renaissance who, with their reconstructions of the
classical pronunciation of Latin, began to oppose the pronunciation of Latin heard in European
universities. The reconstructions of these authors still have many limitations, but they promoted
the revision of the traditional pronunciation of Latin. However, the pedantic attempts of 15th
and 16th century humanists to revive the classical Latin of Cicero in place of the simple Latin of
the Church and convents accelerated the decline of Latin in European intellectual circles.
The last philosophical work written in Latin in England was Bacon's Novum Organum , and the
last scientific work was Newton's Principia . Latin was preserved in German universities until
1690.

After the 18th century , Latin began to lose importance as an international language.

Twentieth century

Starting in the second half of the 20th century , a movement began to renew and promote the
teaching of classical Latin, based on a unified, scientifically reconstructed pronunciation of
classical Latin. There is an increase in scientific studies, publications and international
conferences whose objective is to promote the study and use of a “living Latin”. The
reconstructed pronunciation or pronuntiatio restituta is becoming established in scientific
environments and international conferences. However, this pronunciation did not manage to
establish itself as a unified pronunciation in all educational centers. So it can be said that there
are at least six different pronunciations of classical Latin, all of them influenced by the language
of each nation. The pronuntiatio restituta , which in theory is accepted by the entire scientific
community, in practice is not easy to reproduce acoustically. There are “recordings” of classical
Latin texts, which attempt to approximate the “tone” of classical Latin, but which remain quite
different from each other.

Classical philologists believe that if the Romans heard us pronounce Latin following the
pronuntiatio restituta , they would undoubtedly understand us, but they would be very amused
by our “way of speaking”, which would seem humorous to them.

At the First International Congress for a Living Latin in Avignon, held in 1956, inspired and
convened by Jean Capelle, it was decided to recommend the international use of a unified
pronunciation of Latin based on the so-called pronuntiatio restituta or reconstructed
pronunciation of classical Latin. This pronunciation is becoming established in all academic
circles and is also used in all international conferences dedicated to classical Latin. The
Avignon Congress urged the renewal of the teaching of classical Latin in schools. The four
following congresses (from 1959 to 1975) and after the reform of education in France in 1968,
could not continue with the renewal impetus of the first Avignon congress.

A new impetus for the cultivation of classical Latin was the Conventus of the Academia
Latinitati fovendae (Rome 1966 and Jyväskylä 1997). This last congress propagated a
documentary video made by the Finnish Broadcasting Company: Vinculum amicitiae , which
broadcasts comments in Latin: Commentarii .

In Spain a Circulus Latinus Matritensis was formed

http://www.servicom.es/latine/circulus.htm

In America there is a Septentrionale Americanum Latinitatis Vivae Institutum ( SALVI )

http://www.latin.org

The LVPA Latinitati Vivae Provehendae Associatio e was founded in Germany . v.

http://pagina.de/lvpa/

The Societas Latina in Saarbrücken (Saarland, Germany) publishes cassettes with the
reconstructed pronunciation of classical Latin:

Libri audibiles / disci compacti

The Sodalitas LVDIS LATINIS faciundis e. V. of Munich, founded in 1984:

http://www.klassphil.uni-muenchen.de/~stroh/sodalitas.html

Radio Bremen, in Germany, also broadcasts news in Latin, with summaries of the most
important news of the month. These broadcasts can be heard on the Internet Auscultandi
facultas:

http://www.radiobremen.de/nachrichten/latein/

For a few years now, Finnish radio has had a weekly news broadcast in a not very Ciceronian
and somewhat modern Latin: Nuntii Latini . These broadcasts can be heard on the Internet:

http://www.yle.fi/fbc/latini/

However, we are still far from the Renaissance humanists' ideal of achieving a Latinitas
perennis , classical Latin as the international language of the scientific world and educated
people.

We don't know exactly what classical Latin sounded like. Some believe that the Italian
pronunciation is the closest to Latin. Although the pronuntiatio restituta is a good
approximation to the classic pronunciation, the “leave” of each speaker's native language, their
autochthonous accent, will always be recognized. This can be verified by listening to different
recordings of classical texts made by specialists of different nationalities.

The problem with pronuntiatio restituta is that in most teaching centers they do not take into
account the number of syllables or whether they are long or short in classical Latin. If the
quantity is not taken into account, all intonation is lost.

Other links :

A test of how classical Latin was pronounced:

http://wiredforbooks.org/aeneid/Aeneid.ram (Book IV of the Aeneid)

How to write a CV? CV: curriculum vitae (pronounced vite) is the document that recounts your
school or professional background:

http://membres.lycos.fr/summerjob/es/cv.php

Latin accentuation and pronunciation:

http://users.servicios.retecal.es/jomicoe/del_latin_al_espanol.htm

The Latin alphabet. Your pronunciation. Differences with Spanish. Extracted from the Latin
Manual of J. García Carrido, A. Gómez Feced and A. Ferrández Arenaz. Ed. Spanish Teaching
SA

http://www.sombrasdeotrostiempos.com/web/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=62

Classic pronunciation

It is clear that any linguistic standardization is just a convention: when most people are told
about Latin, we instinctively think of Julius Caesar or Cicero . We do not think about the Latin
of Erasmus or that of the Pope .

That is, “Latin” without further ado is understood to be “classical” Latin (1st centuries BC. C.
to III d. C.). According to what has been said, the “exact pronunciation of Latin” would be the
pronunciation of the educated class in the time of Augustus, but this is a convention like any
other. Anyway, the following rules could be given for classical pronunciation:

C/c always sounds [k], therefore 'fecit' sounds [fekit]

G/g always com [gu] in 'war'; 'regina' sounds [reguina]

H/h at the beginning of a slightly aspirated word /similar to the 'h' in 'home'/. This is how we
distinguish, when speaking, 'habes' (you have) from 'abes' (you are absent). In all
other cases it is never pronounced: pulcher [pulker], rhetoricam [rhetoricam],
thesaurus [tesaurus]. But after 'p' it is pronounced like 'f', example: philosophia
[philosophy].

LL/ll is pronounced as double 'l', 'puella' [puel-la], 'illorum [il-lorum]. Same in the case of
other double consonants: accidere [ak-kidere], appellare [ap-pel-lare], difficilis
[dif-ficilis]

V/u is always pronounced like u: quidam [kuidam], sanguinemque [sangüinemkue], Vinum

[uinum]

S the initial 's' is always pronounced, just like in English, schola [skola], scire [skire].
 X/x sounds like 'ks', dixerat [dikserat], duxit [duksit]

Y/y sounds like the 'u' in French or the ü in German.

Z/z sounds 'ds'; Xenonem [dsenonem], gaza [gadsa]

ae/oe the two vowels form a diphthong. They are pronounced even though the e has a closed
sound: rosae [rósae]

In the case of classical Latin, there are as many pronunciations as there are European languages,
in fact there is a so-called ecclesiastical one, which is the one used by the Church, and then the
French, English, and Italians, in medieval times, created their own. Thus, for example caelum ,
a medieval Spaniard would pronounce it as selum , but a medieval Italian would pronounce it as
chelum .

In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was determined what classical pronunciation should be more
or less like, determining issues such as which vowels were long or short, etc. For example,
caelum would be pronounced Kaelum. The following factors were taken as:

§ the comments and corrections made by Roman grammarians;

§ mockery that cultured writers made of vulgar forms;

§ the misspellings of the Romans;

§ false transcriptions made spontaneously in public inscriptions, such as tombstones, etc.;

§ transcription errors in classical Latin documents;

§ inscriptions with vulgar pronunciation;

§ the genealogy of the Romance languages;

In this way, a classical pronunciation was established that was called pronuntiatio restituta , or
reestablished pronunciation. After the Second World War, this pronunciation was implemented
in the international scientific community.

The pronunciation of Latin changed significantly over the centuries, depending on the
geographical areas in which it was established. Each Roman province had a different
pronunciation of Latin based on the accent of the pre-Roman languages that existed in the area.
For example, Caesar sounds:

Chesar in Italian pronunciation

Sesar in French pronunciation

Caesar in Spanish pronunciation

Tsesar in German pronunciation

Sisa in English pronunciation

 Roman or ecclesiastical pronunciation

«In the 4th century, classical or popular Greek was no longer spoken in the Empire. The
language was Latin. Cultivated Latin in the courts, popular Latin in the people. The Church
adopts popular Latin as its language, to this day.

Pope Damasus, therefore, in the s. IV, asks Saint Jerome, the greatest linguist and Hebraist of
his time, and the greatest biblicist of all time, to translate the Bible into Latin. He then
composed the third canon, called the Vulgate , for translating the books from the original
Hebrew into the vulgar Latin (spoken by the common people) of his time. The Church continues
to maintain the pronunciation of Vulgar Latin in the typical edition of its documents and in the
Gregorian Chant, simple and simple, which came to replace the pompous Masses of the classics
(Mozart, Bach, Beethoven), which placed the attention of the people in its magnificence more
than in the mystery that was celebrated.

[Source: http://es.catholic.net/biblia/ ]

Since the restoration of Gregorian chant in Latin, which occurred in the 19th century, within the
liturgy of the Church, the popes advised that the Roman pronunciation of Latin be adopted.

Rules of ecclesiastical pronunciation of Latin texts:

Diphthongs

ae, oe

They are made in a single sound and are pronounced e: maríae = maríe, moestus = mestus.

ouch, ouch

The two vowels are pronounced with their own sound but in a single voice emission. autem
= au-tem, euge = eu-ge. The a with the u always forms a diphthong: laudamus = lau-damus,
pauper = pau-per.

eu

They do not form a diphthong when this last letter is not constant in the declension: meus =
me-us (genitive is mei in which the u disappears).

Except as noted, two vowels always belong to different syllables, which is why they must be
pronounced separately: tría = trí-a, ruínas = ru-inas, férunt = fu-érunt.

what, whoa

The u that follows the q or the g is always voiced. quacumque=cua-cum-cue, quaero = cu-
ero, qui = cu-i; pinguédinem = pin-güé-dinem, sanguis = san-güis.
Consonants

The C in front of e , i , ae , oe is pronounced like the Spanish ch . Caecilia = Chechília,

coelum = chelum.

DC

When the double C is found in front of these vowels, it is pronounced kch : ecce = ekche;
accípite = akchípite.

CH

It has a k sound: cháritas = káritas, Melchísedec = Melkísedec.

In front of the e , i has the same sound as in French ( and softened): genus, pangimus.

G.N.

It sounds like the ñ in Spanish: agnus = year, magnitudeo = mañitudo.

It has the k sound in the dative mihi = miki, and in the adverb nihil = nikil with its
compounds nihilóminus = nikilóminus. In other cases the h is silent.

J.

It sounds like the y in Spanish; major = greatest, Jesus = Yesus

L.L.

It is pronounced as two separate L's: nullus = nul-lus, tranquillitas = trancuíl-litas.

You have to be careful so that it doesn't sound like N. Dóminum not Dóminun, immémor not
immémor.

PH

It has the same sound as the f in Spanish: phase = phase, philosophia = philosophy.

H.H

Same as the s in Spanish: missa, pásser.

S.C.

In front of e and i , it has the same sound as the French ch : Scientia, descéndo

T
When the syllable ti is preceded and followed by a vowel, it sounds like ts : étiam = étsiam,
grátias = grátsias. If preceded by an s or an x, the t has the same sound as in Spanish:
quaéstio = question, mixtio = mixtio.

It should be differentiated from b by bringing the lower lip closer to the edge of the teeth.

Before the vowel, cs sounds: condúxit = conducsit, genuflexo = genuflecso.

XC

When they precede the vowels e , i, the x sounds like k and the c like the French ch: excélsis
= ekchélsis, excípias = ekchípias.

It is pronounced like the soft s with a t being heard: zona = tsona, zizánia = tsitsánia.