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8. The so-called Roman Pronunciation of Latin aims to represent approximately the pronunciation of classical times.

VOWELS: ā as in father; ă as in idea.
ē as eh? (prolonged), or a in date; ĕ as eh? (clipped) or e in net.
ī as in machine; ĭ as in holiest or sit.
ō as in holy; ŏ as in obey.
ū as oo in boot; ŭ as oo in foot.
y between u and i (French u or German ü).

DIPHTHONGS: ae like ay; ei as in eight; oe like oy in boy;
eu as eh'oo; au like ow in now ui as oo'ee.

Consonants are the same as in English, except that—

  1. c and g are as in come, get, never as in city, gem.
  2. s as in sea, lips, never as in ease.
  3. Consonant i is like y in young; v (consonant u ) like w in wing.
  4. n in the combinations ns and nf probably indicates nasalization of the preceding vowel, which was also lengthened; and final m in an unaccented syllable probably had a similar nasalizing effect on the preceding vowel.
  5. ph, th, ch, are properly like p, t, k, followed by h (which may, for convenience, be neglected); but ph probably became like (or nearly like) f soon after the classical period, and may be so pronounced to distinguish it from p.
  6. z is as dz in adze.
  7. bs is like ps; bt is like pt.

Note.--Latin is sometimes pronounced with the ordinary English sounds of the letters. The English pronunciation should be used in Roman names occurring in English (as, Julius Cæsar); and in familiar quotations, as, e pluribus unum; viva voce; vice versa; a fortiori; veni, vidi, vici, etc.

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