PRONUNCIATION RULES FOR LATIN
THE ROMAN ALPHABET Our alphabet is the Roman alphabet with three additional letters The Romans took this alphabet from the Phoenicians
Compare: In ENGLISH: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ABCDEFGHI*KLMNOPQRST*V*XYZ The Latin alphabet omits: J, U, W However, we will see the U utilized
PRONUNCIATION Nearly every sound in Latin has an equivalent sound in English. The pronunciation rules are rather constant. Everything is pronounced (no silent letters).
VOWELS
VOWELS
DIPTHONGS
Long and Short Vowels How can you tell if a vowel is long or short? Answer: if it is marked with a macron or before: -nf, -ns, -nx, -nct, -gn, -sco THEN IT IS LONG
It will be short if: it is not marked with a macron it is before another vowel it is before an “h” it is before: -nd, -nt, -ss it is before the following if they are the last letter in a word: -m, -r, -t.
SEMIVOWELS The letter “I” is used as both a vowel and a consonant. As a consonant it is pronounced like a “y” in English. E.g.: ius, iam “V” was also used as a “U” and a “V”. However, we will use both letters.
CONSONANTS