Pronunciation.

8.

Vowels:

• a as in father;

• e as in eh? (prolonged) or a in date;

• i as in machine;

• o as in holy;

• u as oo in boot;

• a as in idea;

• e as eh? (clipped) or e in net;

• i as in holiest or sit;

• o as in obey;

• u as oo in foot;

• y between u and i (French u or German u).

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---

• c and g are as in come, get, never as in city, gem.

• s as in sea, lips, never as in ease.

• Consonant i is like y in young; v (consonant u) like w in wing.

• 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.

• 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.

• z is as dz in adze.

• 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 usedin Roman names occurring in English (as, Julius Caesar); and in familiar quotations, as, e pluribus unum; uiua voce; vice versa; a fortiori; veni, vidi, vici, etc.

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