Latin

PDD

Hello Peoples,

I was just wondering if anyone knew of someone who speaks latin? I would like to hear some sayings or phrases spoken properly.

Regards,

PDD

Piste

Although many people do study Latin, the exact pronunciattion or words is not known because all we know of Latin is from texts unlike living languages where we can of course here them spoken by natives and so know the pronunciation.

For example, the word "Caesar" could be as we normally pronounce it "see-zer" or like the German word "Kaiser" "Ky-zar"

PDD

Hi Piste,

I had suspected that but I was under the impression that since it had been used in academia and science through that there would have been an standard pronunciation which was accepted and recognoised as not being the exactly correct pronunciation as it is not a living language.

I am looking for a few latin says to be read so that I can listen to the pronunciation as I can't find anywhere that gives the pronunciation. Do you speak latin yourself?

Dave

FlutterinBantam

Opening line in "Caesar de Bello gallica"

Cum Caesar in citeriore Gallia in hibernis.....goes on a bit after that:D

Just My View

Try to get a recording of the Catholic Mass in Latin. I suspect it might be what you want as the Catholic Church have used Latin since God was a boy, literally.

Alun

Have you tried listening to the news in latin on Finnish radio? (no I'm not kidding!)

http://www.yleradio1.fi/nuntii/audi/

punka

I just found this thread, so apologies if you've already found an answer to your question. There are 2 fundamental ways of pronouncing Latin - classical and ecclesiastical. The basic difference is that in classical Latin g's and c's are always hard, and v's and j's (or consonantal u's and i's) are pronounced like w and y respectively. And in ecclesiastical Latin it's the opposite, basically. So pronunciation really depends on which type of Latin you're reading. If you want to hear some ecclesiastical Latin, you can listen to Reginald Foster, who is the chief Latinist at the Vatican, reading the sermons of Leo the Great here. I don't have any links for classical Latin being read, but I'm sure there are some around the net.
If you're really interested in the topic, you should check out the book Vox Latina by W. Sidney Allen, which is all about how to pronounce classical Latin.

nesf

Alun wrote:

Have you tried listening to the news in latin on Finnish radio? (no I'm not kidding!)

http://www.yleradio1.fi/nuntii/audi/

Thank you, you've just made my evening..

Alun

nesf wrote:

Thank you, you've just made my evening..

Glad to be of service

To add to the hilarity, how about someone singing Elvis songs in Latin?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6079852.stm

Also, Finland has an newsletter about it's presidency of the EU in Latin ...

http://www.eu2006.fi/news_and_documents/newsletters/vko40/en_GB/1159946333250/

nuac

I recall one classics teacher saying t hat pronunciations could be worked out from scansion of poetry