Latin Phonetics Part 1: Vowels

If we are going to learn Latin, the first thing we must do is learn phonetics, as we need to understand the basic sounds of the language, so that we can read it properly. This will require looking at both vowels and consonants, so let's look at vowels first!
Script by Patrizia Farina, Professor of Italian at Western Connecticut State University and Purchase College.
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[@adilsongoliveira]

The last Latin I heard was "I have a vewy gweat fwiend in Wome called 'Biggus Dickus'." 😁

[@chriscasperson5927]

Romanes eunt domus!

[@DanielQwerty]

@@chriscasperson5927 Nominative? That's motion towards isn't it boy!

[@thegameplaymemer3248]

"He has a wife you know.."

[@yugimotobutjacked3231]

Fun "Fact" it originally wasn't in script for the guards to laugh, they were supposed to stand stoicly however forget the blokes name found it so funny making them laugh they decided to play on it. (probably made up story, I read it on another KZbin comment fyi)

[@minepur_ka_raja9867]

I never thought you would make a latin video ever in my life

[@objective_psychology]

Bro finished science

[@gabor6259]

​@@objective_psychology Linguistics is a science.

[@kakahass8845]

@@gabor6259Correct we even have cases were predictions were made and then proven to be true like the Proto-Indo-European laryngeal theory.

[@DT2PZ0]

How do you say. Princess Dave is terrified to debate austin witsit

[@cetologist]

​​@@gabor6259Yes, but this isn't linguistics, this is Latin, it's language education/learning. Languages are to linguistics as humans are to anthropology.

[@himecinda8094]

I took Latin in highschool. Now in college taking Anatomy and Physiology, I heard you use “colloquial” in an anatomy video and was excited to find this. Thank you for reinvigorating a Latin learning passion!

[@joachimbramson1991]

I'm so happy you're making videos on classical latin. I've been learning latin on and off for a few years and I love the language but cannot find the motivation to keep learning as I can't exactly speak it with others

[@jerryweirdspeed8943]

Go to Sardinia! But I have to agree. His pronunciation is good. The lecture is well done. I had to think a little what he meant with the German u sound but yeah. He probably means this one ü which is in deed different from u even in German.

[@kristinabruk3260]

Couldn’t wait for this one, thank you so much Professor! ❤

[@jamiegallier2106]

Good stuff! I appreciate the dedication to making this presentation so clear and concise, nice examples and visuals along with the excellent pronunciation.

[@pikleman5880]

Thanks for making these. They'll really help me since I'm learning Latin in school.

[@IloveUraniumSoMuch]

It's amazing that you touch this language since ive been trying so hard learning it. Nice video btw

[@DanielQwerty]

Great Video! It's very cool to see you do Latin now. It seems that alot of people that learn Italian move onto Latin afterwards. However, there are 2 things dubious I noticed. First off, the letter "y" is supposed to be pronounced like the greek (Greek υ, IPA /y/) in classical latin. This was a foreign sound that the upper class Romans did learn to pronounce, but the lower classes didn't, leading to the same sound as "i" in late and ecclesiastical Latin. Second, the diphthongs are not just 2 vowels, but more like 1 short that slides to 1 long. For example, "eye" in English is a diphthong, equivelent to "ai" in latin. It IS the sounds "a" and "i" but super fast. You wouldn't say "I have 2 ah-ees". Same with "ae" but it's "a" and "e" super fast. Other than that awesome video, I can't wait for more.

[@pedrosaune]

indeed, i noticed that diphtongs sounded too long

[@EnigmaticLucas]

I remember reading that the Roman upper class pronounced "ph", "th", and "ch" (Latinization of phi, theta, and chi, respectively) the Ancient Greek way too (i.e. as aspirated stops).

[@DanielQwerty]

@@EnigmaticLucas yeah that's right. But lower class just pronounced them as p, t and c/k respectively (without the aspiration).

[@DrunkenHotei]

"i" as in the English pronoun is now recognized by the vanguard as a closing diphthong /aj/. Dr. Geoff Lindsey has a few great videos explaining the shortcomings of our "traditional" understanding of vowels and consonants in English.

[@DanielQwerty]

@@DrunkenHotei To be fair I didn't use IPA let alone a narrow transcription. Secondly, my point was the length of the vowels into diphthongs; I was not trying to claim the second vowel to be [i]. Finally, it varies by dialect; my dialect has /e/ (stressed) or /ɪ/ (unstressed) as the second vowel without question.

[@rheiagreenland4714]

It always takes me by surprise how resoundingly deep the Latin 'U' is.

[@pietrosier4083]

Great explaination of the develepmont (evolution) of Latin.

[@elsadmafioso]

I didn't know Dave spoke Latin. very cool!

[@yashsingh6508]

Amazing!

[@maiorskillsxd6912]

When I listen to the "u" sound (which to me sounds about the same short and long, with only the difference of length) I have the feeling it is pretty close to the long, German "u" sound (like e.g. in "Bruder"), just with adjusted length of the vowel. It's about as close as "look" or "root" i would say.

[@do.notdisturb]

I thought the “y” vowel in Latin was pronounced like the German “ü”. If that phoneme was borrowed from Ancient Greek then it would preserve the Ancient Greek /y/ pronunciation no?

[@DrunkenHotei]

You are correct. He made a mistake there, and in a few other places. Still pretty good intro though.

[@jiminsbluemold]

No way! You're teaching languages too!? Awesome!

[@ChanakyanStudent7971]

This video is the reason I started learning Latin, after learning how incredibly similar Latin and sanskrit are. The vowels in Latin and Vedic Sanskrit are almost exactly the same? Even more so than Greek or any other european language.

[@betsyfriend9995]

Heck yeah, I'm invested

[@fedos]

The breakdown of the Ecclesiastical vs Classical as being Italian vs German/British reminds me of when I was in a a stats class and a woman who'd immigrated from Greece told the instructor he was pronouncing "μ" wrong; because apparently modern Greek speakers are unaware of either the language's vowel shifts.

[@objective_psychology]

Greeks are notorious for believing their language hasn't changed in the last 3000 years 💀

[@Goreuncle]

@@objective_psychology They're fully aware.

[@Kammerliteratur]

µ is not a vowel.

[@fedos]

@@Kammerliteratur μ is not a vowel, but the letter's name contains a vowel.

[@Kammerliteratur]

@@fedos then she may have a point, as she is talking about the pronounciation of the letter's name and not of the letter itself. being a german, i call the letters of the latin alphabet with their german name, even when i am asked to tell how a latin word is spoken. and a modern greek speaker will of course call greek letters with their modern greek name. and you will certainly not convince an english speaker to pronounce π "pee".

[@pietrosier4083]

Question: Dave: which studies have you studied?

[@yesitcanspeak]

Does Professor Dave speak fluent Latin, or are we all learning together?

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

Took three years in high school. Pronunciation is very similar to Italian which I speak. My mother developed this curriculum, I just adapted it and she checks the videos for accuracy.

[@dusrus]

​@@ProfessorDaveExplains There is something wholesome about this.

[@yesitcanspeak]

@@ProfessorDaveExplains That's pretty cool you responded to my comment without me tagging you. I enjoy your debunk videos, but I am more excited that you seem focused on educational ones. That's important and will pay off far more than money ever can. Cheers from Texas

[@otistically]

The thumbnail was... something.

[@pedrosaune]

It deeply disapoints me that you didn't use ipa symbols to clarify the pronunciation...

[@theManUCantBe]

Hey Dave IAM from India can u suggest some books For organic, inorganic, nd physical all the chemistry Suggest 3 books one for each all the students in India running for iit Kindly suggest some of the books where we can clear that level of exams and enjoy chemistry

[@locrain7]

the thumbnail kinda sus

[@nitishkumar-np9vs]

Hello Love from India (bihar)

[@xwtek3505]

Isn't pronounced [ĩːsʊla]?

[@pedrosaune]

as far as i'm awared /ʊ/ isn't present in latin, could be wrong tho

[@xwtek3505]

@@pedrosaune First of all, I made a mistake of using // instead of []. Second, there is an evidence that short /i e o u/ indeed have more open realization, according to Allen in Vox Latina. This is shown by the fact that Vulgar latin merged i and ē, and the ancient scribes often mispelled short i as Phonemically, though, [ɪ] is an allophone of /i/, and it's incorrect to pronounce as a short /i/. Quantity is much more important than quality here, unlike English's /ɪ iː/

[@xwtek3505]

@@pedrosauneThat said, there is an alternative analysis by Calabrese where /i i: u u:/ are tense [i i: u u:] and /e e: o o:/ are lax [ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː]

[@waelfadlallah8939]

Languages are euphoric 😊

[@mjbalbo]

I don't think you pronounce the diphthongs well. For example you say "saēpe", like a trisyllabic word.

[@AAG414]

Chemistry Jesus himself doing sidequests now and expanding his videos into language?? Hell yeah

[@analternatemultiverse2063]

Why was your twitter account banned?

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

idiot Zionists mass-reported me until it got deactivated

[@analternatemultiverse2063]

@@ProfessorDaveExplains I did some digging and I'm pretty sure they were actually sent over by David Klingoffher from Discovery Institute. Honestly I think you should urgently make a video about him, even if he hasn't said anything worth exposing about lies regarding evolution/intelligent design, he's made countless lies about you and is actively calling you a bigot and a "rape apologist" or something like that by sharing out of context twitter screenshots. Many many people have been buying it including people I know.

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

He is just capitalizing on “stop antisemitism” and all those accounts who doxx and cancel anyone who speaks out against Israel.

[@Akkhinus]

​@@ProfessorDaveExplainscanary mission also put a page full of lies about you on their website

[@waelfadlallah8939]

I said it way back, you have a gift in the most difficult pronunciations, but never expect such day will come that you share with us this wonderful ability!

[@pedrosaune]

it's not that hard if you get to understand vowel quality and get to learn a bit of IPA notation

[@me0101001000]

@@pedrosaune IPA helps with every language. Sometimes I wish Latin based scripts would just switch over entirely to IPA

[@EvTheFlickFan]

@@me0101001000kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmGvlJeui6-Unrsfeature=shared

[@jenaroaragon721]

Why are most of the videos unavailable?

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

To be released on a schedule!

[@pietrosier4083]

Do you also anything Greek? Greetings from the Netherlands. (Founders of New York).

[@tlhe_ovIyloS]

omg Professor is teaching an ancient language now

[@jalsiddharth]

That thumbnail was mildly shocking. 🤡🤣🤣

[@rogeriopenna9014]

Not that different from Portuguese. And the final m in Latin was nasal, like Brazilians pronounce. Another funny thing, is that Brazilians pronounce O at the end of words as U (like the Latin u, mind you)... And because we use the Germanic plural S, every word ending in O, in the plural, ends up sounding like the most stereotypical Latin word ending... "Us"

[@Philoglossos]

The plural -s isn't Germanic, it's just from the Latin accusative case.

[@avasarahc5]

Latin is very important for understanding science terms like for Chemistry or Physics. Very cool. keep making more if you can. ❤❤

[@DumbJockQuaterback]

And law

[@mjbates]

what about -ii ? I've always pronounced it like "A-E"

[@DanielQwerty]

It's basically a long /i/ or "ee" in english. Filiī is like "fee-leeee"

[@valkeakirahvi]

it's two i, I'd pronounce it with a glottal stop in the middle as we do in Finnish, but I'm not sure actually. At least the quality if the vowels should not be different to any singlular i

[@valkeakirahvi]

I still hear some problems with your long vowels. I hear all your example words with short o to have long ô as well, even though your examples with ô have even longer vowel. I feel both could be a bit shorter. Also your long vowels in word-final positions sound short, try to hold them a bit longer! Source: native speaker of Finnish, which has vowel system similar to Latin and phonemic lenght difference. Also had Latin minor in uni.

[@briankane6547]

WHY bother with an "H", if you NEVER use it? As in your Erb Garden?

[@kakahass8845]

They did have an "H" sound it was just in the process of getting deleted so it's usually pronounced quite weakly.

[@bruceingalls7964]

U? Tat's eavy! 😂

[@kakahass8845]

@@bruceingalls7964/ð/ has no /h/ in it we just write it as "Th".

[@dieyoung]

Wtf is "quantity of a vowel" lmao, you mean duration??

[@objective_psychology]

Proto-Indo-European when? ;)

[@DanielQwerty]

oooooh yes

[@Randa17]

I'm from Somalia this vowels are same when we looking our language. Short vowels... A. E. I. O. U Long vowels... Aa. Ee.. Ii.. Oo.. Uu

[@hape3862]

Same in German!

[@objective_psychology]

Well yeah, it is one of the most common vowel systems in the world.

[@objective_psychology]

@@hape3862 German is not the same at all, you have about 17 vowels, many of which have no Latin counterpart, such as the front rounded series of vowels: /yː/ (e.g. Rübe), /øː/ (Öl), /ʏ/ (füllt) and /œ/ (göttlich) (examples taken from Wiktionary). Also the schwa (/ə/, the final "e" in many words such as bitte) and the "-er" sound (/ɐ/) are separate central vowels, nothing like the Latin "pure" vowels.

[@hape3862]

@@objective_psychology I didn't claim that we _only_ have these vowels, but these _are_ identical. The final "e" and "er" are just laziness and dialect, which most probably happened in Ancient Rome as well. You can read High German out loud perfectly when you only use the Latin vowels (+äöü). All else is dialect.

[@kakahass8845]

Somali vowels are distinguished by length or quality while Latin's vowels were distinguished by length and quality so long "E" was pronounced a little higher in the mouth than short "E" for example.

[@ayshan0]

Why to learn Latin? Just curious

[@GrapeswitheldJK]

It's fucking cool and also once u learn Latin it makes it easier to learn other languages I think

[@hoseinsobhani8040]

Well... It is fun!

[@devananderson1519]

For the glory of Rome

[@ScorpionM203]

To be a real GIGACHAD 😎

[@Claudius_Ptolemy]

Quod Lingua Latina pulcra est! 😁

[@veero25]

this classical pronunciation sounds super weird sometimes. Ca-esar? really? negotium without the ts/z sound? the ecclesiastical pronunciations sounds way better.

[@objective_psychology]

The Ecclesiastical one is just Latin butchered into a standard Italian accent, it's stupid. And I disagree, it sounds cooler to have only one fricative (/s/) and a bunch of occlusives and archaic diphthongs.

[@veero25]

@@objective_psychology exactly! and italian sounds great!😁 the classic ones sounds more like a reconstruction of the probable original sounds, while the ecclesiastical at least sounds more based on the sound of the modern words originated from. I'm not saying one is objectively better than the other, just that if a know a guy called Ce-sa-re, name originated from Caesar, it's super weird hearing Ca-esar. Same of all the gn sounds pronounced mag-nus instead of the italian way. of course if was French or German, I would find them weird, but not as weird the _possible_ original sounds, I guess.

[@kakahass8845]

It's only weird because you're not used to it.

[@kakahass8845]

@ive_psychologyAnd their fricative was cool as hell since it was apical instead of laminal.

[@veero25]

@@kakahass8845 true. could it be the same for you?

[@bruceingalls7964]

Omnia sonat smarter latine!

[@mgx9383]

ROMANES EVNT DOMVS

[@sirvioletii2450]

Why do you know everything? :3

[@Viz_lifelore]

Is there something you don't know 🤯