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Etaoin Shrdlu
Guest
I have to admit to being an uncircumcised Philistine who has always failed to appreciate Schiller, or at least that poem, and Beethoven, particularly the Ninth Sumphony. But the Latin version is, well, something else.
I've heard MUCH worse than that song.
Like this?I do feel the occasional cringe with the vowel glides that seem often to escape English/German speakers, probably because it is the most blatant un-Latin-sounding thing to do to the ear of a Romance speaker.
I doubt the differences were anywhere as remarkable as in the middle ages or later. The only reference I have come across regarding differences in pronunciation across the Roman empire is a passage from the not extremely reliable Historia Augusta on the life of Septimius Severus:Now that I think about it though, ancient latin probably had as many accents as modern english. The Roman empire covered a huge area so it would have been spoken with north african accents, middle eastern accents, central & eastern european accents etc. Just like how modern english accents vary quite a bit depending on geography.
Prudenter enim qui, cum interrogasset rusticum testem an | |
Amphionem <nosset>, negante eo detraxit adspirationem | |
breuiauitque secundam eius nominis syllabam, et ille eum sic | |
optime norat. |
They were probably not as great, at least among native speakers. It's only to be expected that accents will differ more among native speakers of different languages, who would have been the only Latin speakers in the middle ages and later.I doubt the differences were anywhere as remarkable as in the middle ages or later.
There was certainly regional variation in the pronunciation of Latin in antiquity. There is a 746 page long study of the subject by Adams (The Regional Diversification of Latin 200BC-AD600), if you're interested in the topic.Now that I think about it though, ancient latin probably had as many accents as modern english. The Roman empire covered a huge area so it would have been spoken with north african accents, middle eastern accents, central & eastern european accents etc. Just like how modern english accents vary quite a bit depending on geography.
Did you mean to post this in another thread?The best horror story I ever read in Latin was Pacifica's version of Vathecus, available here.
Yes, sorry.Did you mean to post this in another thread?
Thanks for the compliment, anyway.
I have moved it to the correct thread.Yes, sorry.
Exactly! And since Italian phonology is probably the one that diverged the least from Latin* among Romance languages (other than Sardinian), Italianate pronunciation of Latin by an Italian kinda feels like a (super weird) form of Italian, and I've heard Italians say as much, whereas the same couldn't necessarily be said about the relationship between French traditional pronunciation of Latin, and the French language, for instance. French uvular R's and /y/ do stand out of course but they don't do the trick, or to take an extreme example, "aqua" just won't sound like "eau" no matter how you (mis)pronounce it.I suspect the Italianate pronunciation sounds more natural precisely because it is natural; in other words, the speaker is using the phonology, intonation, and phrasing of his native language.
I think what I like the least about the English one, are the diphtonguized long vowels ^^' That said, not a huge fan of the French one either hahaWhat sounds the least acceptable to me as a native English speaker, is the historic English pronunciation of Latin.
en! barbarus Latine optime loquitur!I found Metatron's classical to be quite impressive in that video (he's Italian too):