Well here it is after all of the tweaking and learning of long vs. short vowels, as well as the learning of nasalisation. After many trials and discoveries, this is what I have produced.
Much better than the last time. As I said last time, I very much
generally like the way you pronounce, it is very clear and if I omit some of those mistakes I'm going to enlist, then it is
understandable and on a much higher level than I usually get from the English speakers attempting to do this under such severe conditions.
You've achieved to tackle
most of the problems I've enlisted and that is why I am both happy and think that it is worth my time to review your recording again (because you've indeed learnt from most of your mistakes, though sometimes something from the last time still wasn't so well corrected).
But there are some new mistakes that arose and which became prominent in this recording and they unfortunately are connected to the fact that the phonology of your maternal language (English) still unfortunately in some new places (I haven't noticed before) influences your pronunciation that much that it becomes maybe serious (especially if it affects the grammatical ending of the word) and maybe the last time it wasn't really there because your brain was completely immersed in the Italian model (which carried its own perils and mistakes), but this time it became more prominent and I think you'll have a hard time to pay attention not to do that: I speak about vowel reduction which is something in the set of the western language quite unique for English and it pretty much affects the way the English speakers intuitively pronounce the foreign languages until they become so good that they change their habits and which element makes them distinctively English if listened to from outside.
Also some things about your nasalization must be tweaked: your attempt to nasalize was good
per se, but something different happened and maybe much worse than if you simply not nasalize the -m's which is still generally acceptable (my original recordings don't contain nasalizations, though I would do them today probably). But more about that in my list of corrections
But otherwise a good job!
Now, to the list:
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- di
vīsa -> dī
vīsa (first ī also long)
- nice nasalization! (I'll submit a new recording of my own, maybe in one week, where I will do some of these elements I haven't done in my original recordings).
I would just say two things to the quārum as I heard it:
1) it seemed to me (but that might just an illusion at my place, not necessarily a real thing) that the vowel quality of the nasalized "u" changed a bit, became maybe more central or more open / low - but maybe that's just an illusion
2) maybe I wouldn't make such a pause between quārum and ūnam, then it sounds emphasized and who knows whether a classical speaker when reciting a written text wouldn't realize the emphasis as a full pronounced "m", though that is just a guess (in poetry there's a bit extreme solution where quārum ūnam becomes: quār'ūna[m]), so... not really any problem here, I just thought that the pause after the nasalization seemed to me a bit long.
- qu as [kw] <- but that's generally ok, there are ways how make it better, but not yet generally required (+ my original recordings lacks them too)
-
āliam -> aliam - this is something you didn't accomplish to correct from the last time (at least in this particular example): short accented syllable, must come out as short [accented, but short], not long, that's
Italian, not Latin. The initial "a"
must stay short, no matter what.
- Aqui
tānī -> Aquī
tānī (be careful, not 2, but 3 long vowels in sequence)
- lingua -> lingu
ā (ablative, not nominative, otherwise it makes no sense)
- apelentur -> appell
antur: first, the vowel in
an totally came out with a quality of Latin "e" and that would make it a subjunctive (if it was appellentur) and that changes the whole meaning of the clause, so you can't get this wrong, it matter too much. Second: the double vowels, the really must be geminated, I think this has been done well in my original recording (that is, you try to pronounce
p but once you shut your mouth during the "p" pronunciation, you wait about a half-second to second longer, and THEN prnounce it. And when you pronounce
ll, then simply make the "l" at least twice as long [this is easily done with
l].
- hī omnēs lingua -> lingu
ā - I really can't repeat this enough, but if you say there lingu
a with short "a", it becomes a NOMINATIVE, but that makes absolutely and utterly no sense. There
MUST be an ablative and ablative differs from nominative JUST by length in the first declension, so there must be
linguaaaaa... (also in the preceding case) and my transcription was careful to note it
- īnsti
tūtis -> īnsti
tūtīs: another difficult word. You made the
ū well and stressed, but the last vowel is long two, so it's two long vowels in succession... And maybe you tried to do that long too, but comparatively to ū it totally came short (or even without the comparison)
-lēgibus: this was well done, but I think the ē needs to be even more close/more high (the tongue must be closer to "i", then to short "e", when you're saying "ē"). Now, my recording doesn't make it especially close (I also wrote that in my disclaimer, but I'll try to make a new one at the end of the week).
- difer
unt ->
differunt: 1) you put the accent at the final syllable again (thought, for the first time in this recording, which I'm glad for
So you've definitely got better since the last time), it must be on the first syllable (see in my recording). 2) the "f"
MUST be geminated. That is, twice as longer (see my recording): here it's done easily, since you can just inherently pronounce the "f" longer. 3) the "u" in differunt was maybe too much reduced as you said it: it came out as the schwa sound. That is, it maybe rather sounded as "a" in "about", then as "u" in "look" (but maybe it is just my illusion, though I wouldn't say so)
- ab Aqui
tānīs -> Aquītānīs (3 long vowels, not two)
- Garumna: here the "u" was totally reduced (as "a" in "about", than "u" in "look" or "to"), you should try to avoid this extreme reducing. It is given by the phonological laws of English which simply wants to reduce a lot of vowels into this "shwa" sound, but such law was absent in the classical Latin at least in this particular form.
- a Belgīs: ā Belgīs: the ā must be long
- Mātra(?)na -> Mātrona: here the American pronunciation jumps in. In the American pronunciation of English of those sounds (or letters sometimes) that we consider a "short o" in "possible" or "rock" (<- here it's longer) or "God" are pronounced differently that in the Brittish English which is however
unfortunate for you or any other latinist: because in the Brittish English the lips are
rounded, and therefore the words I named (possible, rock, God) rather contain a much more similar sound to the one you find in "story" (even in American E.) than the sound you find in "star". So you must avoid pronounced it as this short American "o" (God, rock, possible) which is in fact quite the same sound as in "star" or "Mars". You must rather try to imitate the sound in "story" (and make it short, if possible), otherwise you end up with a sound which rather sounds in Latin phonology as "a" and will be mistaken for it. This is a big challenge for you as an American English speaker: if you achieve to adjust this, you've won. And you must pay attention therefore to every short "o" you're going to meet in Latin.
- Sē
quāna ->
Sēquana: the qua must be short and unstressed.
-
dīvidit: well done!
- Hōrum: the vowel quality of "u" changed too much here, it again comes closer to "a" here, you should watch it
- omnium: again, but here it's worse, because now it sounds exactly as "omnia" which is a different form of omnis, is... and therefore you change the sense of the whole thing
- forti
ssimī: very well done here!
(geminated ss, and accent, well done)
- hūmani
tāte -> hūmāni
tāte: be aware of the two long vowels at the beginning of the word. It's first two long vowels, then one short, then one long and stressed, and then one short (unstressed). I know this is a difficult word, even
Pacis puella complained last time about this word
It must be learnt on its own terms: first try to pronounce just "hūmā" (huumaa), then "nitā" (nitaa), then add them together and then add "te" and make sure the stress is in the right place
Then repeat it again and again.
- abs
unt ->
absunt: two mistakes 1) the final "u" got reduced again (sounded rather as "a" in "about" then "u" in "look" or "u") 2) you put the accent at the end again
(though this time you don't do it so often as you did the last time), so cool.
- mercā
tōrēs: ok, I'm willing to believe you did the
ōrēs, with long vowels (I wasn't thoroughly convinced, but ok, but you surely didn't do also the "ā" long. And again, three long vowels in succession: I know it's difficult, but that doesn't mean you can just ignore it, it means you must pay an extra attention to this one word alone and train it on its own terms
So do it please!
(you can check Pacis Puellae last recording, I think she did it well that time)
-
commeant: the stress was on the right place, but I'm not sure whether you really geminated the "m" or not...
- efēmin
endōs -> effēmin
andōs: two mistakes: 1) you seem to somehow always reduce the vowel quality of "a" in "ant" or "and" so it comes out as "ent" or "end" (this mistake was here already), but in Latin that's just not possibly and you risk of being wrong grammaically/morphologically: the vowels and especially in the endings MUST come out correctly. 2) the first "f" must be long, because it's "ff"
-
ēnimōs -> animōs: two mistakes 1) why long vowel? I warned you already last time several times (you did here also with alius), you simply cannot make up the long vowels as you like, as it sounds cool to you, as if an
Italian would pronounce it. This is not possible in Latin. 2) you changed here the "a" totally to "e" (to "ē") in fact, be more careful.
- im
portant: one mistake, but a serious one. The last time, you did the "a" in "ant" well, but for the price that you stressed it, that you pronounced: import
ant. So I told you you shouldn't do it, and you didn't this time: I praise that
But for what price? For the price that if you don't stress it, you suddenly pronounce it as an English word "important" (almost), that is, you totally reduced the last "a" to schwa (the "a" in "about") <- not possible in Latin there must be approximately such "a" as in "star" (shorter one), or the one you
did correctly in
lingua (where I however warned that for that particular case the "a" must be long, here in "important" it's short).
- sunt <- reduced "u" to schwa (again), not pronounced as "u" should be pronounced.
- Ger
mānī: not sure whether that "a" was long or not (seemed at least shorter than the ī in the end)
- Rhēna -> Rhēnum: your nasalization starts to be harmful, because the nasalized element almost gets lost, but your vowel changes completely and rather to "a": not possible, the vowel quality MUST always stay the same.
- incol
unt ->
incolunt: I warned you about this last time and in this case you didn't manage to correct it
Also your "u" in incolunt was again reduced, this is now our new problem
(caused by English)
- qui
buscum: why the pause again after the word? The "u" again sounded here a little bit close to "a", watch that.
- continen
tēr - >contin
enter: 1) why long "e" at the end 2) WHY an accent (stress) at the end?
- bellam -> bellum: I think this time I heard "ll", though I'm not comletely sure, but OK. But the "um" nasalized, changed it completely to "am" here, which would change the sense of the sentence completely... (it would become nonsensical in fact).
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So again, thank you very much for posting! I really appreciate it, you are much further than most of the English speakers I've heard attempting this, your pronunciation is very clear and I like it, you've learnt from most of your mistakes (though sometimes you still put the accent at the end), but some new and serious mistakes arised: reducing vowels, changing vowel quality and you've not yet tackled always well the geminated consonants (mm, pp, ll, ff.. etc.)
But thank you again!