Apologies if this has been discussed before somewhere.
According to Vox Latina (with some convincing arguments), where a Latin word is written ending in a vowel + m, this was normally pronounced as a long nasalised vowel in Classical times (except when followed by a syntactically closely connected word beginning with m, n, gn, b, d, g, p, t, k, or q).
So how exactly does one pronounce these four long nasalised vowels (as in -am, -em, -im, -um)? Is it anything like French, or another modern language with conveniently available audio files?
A second question: should one elide in prose? Is the second sentence of the Pró Marcelló thus something like:
Tant' enim mansuétúdinE, t' inúsitát' inaudítamque clémentiA, tant' in summá potestáte rér' omniU modU, tan déniqu' incrédibilE sapienti' ac paene dívínA, tacitus praeteríre nulló modó possU.
(writing capitals for nasalised vowels)
It's a little difficult to see what is 'syntactically closely connected' - enim mansuétúdinE or enI mansuétúdinE?
According to Vox Latina (with some convincing arguments), where a Latin word is written ending in a vowel + m, this was normally pronounced as a long nasalised vowel in Classical times (except when followed by a syntactically closely connected word beginning with m, n, gn, b, d, g, p, t, k, or q).
So how exactly does one pronounce these four long nasalised vowels (as in -am, -em, -im, -um)? Is it anything like French, or another modern language with conveniently available audio files?
A second question: should one elide in prose? Is the second sentence of the Pró Marcelló thus something like:
Tant' enim mansuétúdinE, t' inúsitát' inaudítamque clémentiA, tant' in summá potestáte rér' omniU modU, tan déniqu' incrédibilE sapienti' ac paene dívínA, tacitus praeteríre nulló modó possU.
(writing capitals for nasalised vowels)
It's a little difficult to see what is 'syntactically closely connected' - enim mansuétúdinE or enI mansuétúdinE?