What Latin Sounded Like And How We Know

[@hectorpascal]

The spoken clip @3:22 is basically the same Latin pronunciation I was taught during my 5 years study at an English High School, 1959-1964! (Albeit with a slightly more British accent!) We were told that this was the approved pronunciation at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, which both in those days, required a pass in a Latin Exam for entrance to read (=study) any subject.

[@josephmaher1350]

Took 4 years in high school. Most rewarding subject I studied throughout my education.

[@EasyLatin]

That's great to hear!

[@JohnVKaravitis]

Okay, I'll bite. WHY?

[@msgr.charlespope4580]

Lot's of interesting theories here. But I think asking how Latin was pronounced is a lot like asking how English is pronounced today. Latin was so widespread, as English is today. I think it just depends on where you were in the Empire. I like the pronunciation of Church Latin because it is the last form of Latin widely spoken. It emerged from history rather than theories.

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, this reconstructed pronunciation would have been how the educated in Rome spoke, similar to Received Pronunciation in England. And yes, in each part of the Empire, they would have spoken a different dialect, which is why these turned into different Romance languages.

[@AnnetteMurphyger]

Latin is a very useful language for the study of other languages

[@EasyLatin]

I agree! Especially with the Romance languages

[@lauradivittorio1014]

Here in Italy Latin has been used as litterary language till 18° century. Till that time every Italian writer or scientist or philosopher wrote in both Italian and Latin. Catholic Church is using Latin nowadays even though it was used much more till fifty years ago. Latin pronunciation changed through centuries I think you can may chose your best preferred, or chose to follow the changes reading Plauto in one way, Cicero in an other, Agostino, Dante, and so on differently. I am italian, Latin is not a foreign language to me. I pronounce it the way we do actually, you call it ecclesiastical Latin but it is the Italian Latin indeed.

[@EasyLatin]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@LifeScriptures]

indeed, in my school days we learned Latin and pronunciation was not an issue

[@alexanderSydneyOz]

This video is not going to break with its boundless popularity, but I would personally like to commend the presenter for his own very precise and elegant use of language, and as that lack of dogma in his message. I particularly like the sensible practicality one of the concluding suggestions that one should adopt a pronunciation schema which matches that used by those with whom you wish to converse! Such a sensible idea!

[@EasyLatin]

Thanks for your kind words. I appreciate you highlighting the concluding suggestion!

[@n8hinz1]

For the creator: ~4:55, descendants or followers, not ancestors, I would think. Love your content!

[@user-fq7eh3jz7u]

Looked for this before commenting the same lol. Cheers

[@EasyLatin]

Haha, yes, I misspoke

[@user-fq7eh3jz7u]

@@EasyLatin still good video though

[@williamorchard16]

It does not beg the question, it prompts it

[@EasyLatin]

You're right!

[@williamloud7350]

It *raises* the question.

[@anthonykranjc4379]

Some source or sources I have run across have it that in Classical Latin the "um" ending was pronounced as a nasal. um = [ũ] That would make it sound a bit like Portuguese.

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, that's correct

[@PMKehoe]

Any one who studied Latin can tell you, we contemporaries do NOT, in fact, know how Latin was pronounced with a final certainty.

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, I'm pretty sure I said that near the end of the video

[@PMKehoe]

@@EasyLatin I'm agreeing with you... :)

[@gaze505]

It is stated that we do not have that knowledge about Ancient Latin as, I must add, any other language as it developed over centuries past.

[@boraxmacconachie7082]

Great video! Thanks for posting!

[@EasyLatin]

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@viniciusbonatto3943]

Very nice video, with great book recomendations

[@EasyLatin]

I'm glad you liked it!

[@CynVee]

I always dreamed of studying Latin in high school. Of course, two years before I entered my high school, they dropped Latin as a foreign language, and I ended up taking Spanish, none of which I remember except how to say my name. 😮

[@EasyLatin]

That's too bad. But you can learn Latin here! Here is the first lesson: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4i4naWCa6qSh7c

[@CynVee]

@@EasyLatin thank you!

[@parrotraiser6541]

I think "ancestors" in this video should be "descendants".

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, I misspoke XD

[@GianmarioScotti]

4:53 you claim romance languages are Latin's ancestors. I think you meant Latin's descendants.

[@EasyLatin]

Yep, I misspoke

[@alexanderSydneyOz]

Great to see all the latin expert nitpickers are here in force. As one would have expected. I am particularly irritated by some commenters criticising the tone of the presenters voice. Personally, I am impressed that anyone in this time would bother to learn Latin at all. Sniping about their normal English accent is quite repulsive.

[@EasyLatin]

Thanks for the great comment! I appreciate it!

[@redrooz]

Thank you for helping me to win an argument about Newton's Principia being pronounced "PrinKipia" and not "PrinSipia". My Philosophy Professor is nodding. Really interesting video. 👍

[@EasyLatin]

Glad it was interesting and helpful!

[@zalman7208]

I believe neither of the above-listed alternatives is correct. I believe the closest we might get to the classic word pronunciation would be approximated by "prin+chi+pia" (with soft c, as in "princheapia") based on present day Romance language pronunciation. Such as Romanian and Italian.

[@hermannschaefer4777]

Well, the German word for imperator is ‘Kaiser’ (Old High German keisur, keisar) - which is more or less the same as the old Latin Caesar. So if we assume that ‘Kaiser’ hasn't changed much, we can also assume that Caesar was pronounced pretty much like Kaiser. Otherwise, Old High German might have used ‘Zaesar’ or something similar. But: on the other hand, we have the Russian царь / Zar, which sounds more like the English Caesar sound and is also derived from Caesar /Latin. We don't know how the Proto-Slavic *cěsařь was pronounced, soo... kind of a tie, I guess.

[@EasyLatin]

When Caesar was borrowed into Greek, it was transliterated as Καῖσαρ (Kaisar), preserving the hard k sound. However, Greek later underwent a phonetic shift where k before front vowels (like e and i) softened to a ts-like sound in certain contexts. As Slavic languages were heavily influenced by Byzantine Greek (e.g., during the Christianization of the Slavs), the softened ts pronunciation of the Greek word Καῖσαρ likely shaped the Slavic adaptation цѣсарь (tsĕsarĭ), which eventually became царь in Russian.

[@luigiscartozzi9145]

Latin sounded like today's italian which is spoken in central Italy. ( Lazio, Umbria, Marche, Abruzzo, Toscana sud).

[@EasyLatin]

Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@pharmacist5884]

@@EasyLatin In Sardic hundred is still pronounced like in Classical Latin: kentu (centum) with a hard K

[@rocambole93]

how do you know?

[@EasyLatin]

@@pharmacist5884 Very cool!

[@BrandonBoardman]

That's true in some ways, but because Italian and its related dialects have long since evolved from Latin, I believe the pronunciation of Latin must have been more like Finnish and Estonian in comparison to the standard Italian pronunciation because it has a distinction between long and short vowels and a different sound for v, which is more like w or ʋ.

[@pintoraazucenaf5970]

I want to learn Latin pronunciation

[@EasyLatin]

That's great!

[@decadenciaglobal-nc7uw]

So, why don't you do it?

[@trufflefur]

Just speak with a roman performing an invocatiom with the ouija

[@EasyLatin]

Hahaha, yes

[@liksar]

Excellent video. Really clear explanation. Thanks. I know that book!

[@EasyLatin]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@euromayan]

How should "Latium" be pronounced, English speakers say "lashum" or should it be "lahteeum", I prefer the latter

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, "lahteeum" is more accurate.

[@ArmanLF]

['lati:um] For what "h" there?

[@davidc5191]

Caesar - and the German version is Kaiser which is what they called their emperors.

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, that's right

[@justkiddin84]

And Celtics should be pronounced Keltics.

[@EasyLatin]

@@justkiddin84 That's right

[@AnnetteMurphyger]

et ab initio (and from the beginning)

[@christiancris8252]

J’ai fait six années d’enseignement du latin. Ce n’est pas très difficile à comprendre et à prononcer pour ceux qui parlent français. La grammaire est très intéressante. Le latin est plus facile à prononcer que l’anglais ou que le portugais. La première phrase que j’ai apprise est « Dominus deam Amat ». Avec ces 3 mots on apprend 3 choses : le verbe se met à la fin ( Amat …aimer). Le maître aime la déesse. Le sujet est « dominus » donc avec us , l’accusatif est deam avec un m. Si l’on voudrait écrire « la déesse aime le maître », ce serait : « dea dominum amat « . Donc la fin des mots change suivant le rôle dans la grammaire.

[@EasyLatin]

C'est une très bonne phrase pour commencer ! Car comme tu le dis, elle contient de nombreux éléments de grammaire.

[@billstrong4814]

I think you meant that Romance are Latin’s descendants, not ancestors.

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, I misspoke

[@Phylaetra]

I kind of use a mix of ecclesiastical and reconstructed pronunciation - mostly not worrying about it too much, as (1) I am more interested in reading than speaking, listening, or writing in Latin, and (2) I think that no matter what pronunciation system one uses, it will be close enough to what someone else is using that communication is still reasonably possible (if your only shared language is Latin). I kind of expected to hear a bit more on how poetry can also inform pronunciation, but overall a good and interesting video, thanks for your work - liked and now subscribed!

[@EasyLatin]

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it! Yes, I agree and at any rate, as Latin turned into Italian, it would have been spoken with sort of a mix of ecclesiastical and classical pronunciation too. The most important part is to enjoy learning and reading Latin, because as you said, if you try communicating with another person, they will most likely be able to understand you.

[@cookiecrumbles2948]

In Arabic it’s pronounced Kayser قيصر .. same in Farsi

[@EasyLatin]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@nachman5570]

Currently it sounds differently 😮

[@EasyLatin]

Depending who you listen to ; ) If you listen to an Italian speaker, it sounds very different XD

[@AnnetteMurphyger]

Are there Latin dialects?

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, and these turned into the various Romance languages, like Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romanian, etc.

[@raymondmuench3266]

Working in a church context, I learned the Italian style. A strange moment, then, was hearing a dissertation in Rome delivered with the “German”, ie, classical pronunciation you described. Retuning the ear was a challenge! Grazie a Dio, we had had the dissertation to which we might refer! It suffices to say none of the readers employed wene/widi/wici when posing questions!

[@EasyLatin]

That's a great story. I'm glad you were able to hear the difference! Maybe that's because Germans pronounce the W like a V anyway?

[@nordwestpassage]

@@EasyLatin yes, W like a V.

[@IO-zz2xy]

I had a German car mechanic and he always said walws instead Valves. Regards from South Africa

[@erkkinho]

M was a marker of a nasal

[@christiancris8252]

Savez vous que la dernière contrée où on a parlé le latin à la chute de l’empire romain est la ROUMANIE actuelle. Il paraît que le roumain est la langue qui ressemble le plus au latin…

[@EasyLatin]

Très intéressant ! Oui, j'aimerais étudier le roumain un jour !

[@AnnetteMurphyger]

You have a great Latin accent

[@EasyLatin]

Thanks so much!

[@Sowhat300]

I want to learn how to swear in Latin😂

[@EasyLatin]

😂😂😂

[@alexs-tt1wk]

03:28 positae 04:13 nec tamen in enuntiatione apparet

[@AnnetteMurphyger]

Sola is all I know

[@EasyLatin]

That's a great start!

[@tohellorbarbados4902]

The Romance Languages are Latin's descendants, not its ancestors...

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, I misspoke. But at least it's generating lots of comments! XD

[@olejnizak]

Beatus qui scit et docet

[@EasyLatin]

Ita est!

[@giauscaesar8047]

That reminds me I have to do my Latin homework.

[@EasyLatin]

Glad it helped, haha

[@stevemcdonald1033]

Vidi, vici, veni!

[@EasyLatin]

Divi, Civi, Nive!

[@austenl43]

Your 'u's are too soft like an 'uh' (e.g. dug) when it should always be an 'ooh' (e.g. doom).

[@relaxralex]

Just found this profile and I like it already

[@EasyLatin]

Thanks! I'm glad!

[@johnjensen4816]

It seems likely that -um may have become a nasalised -u

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, that's correct

[@jballenger9240]

Thank you.

[@EasyLatin]

You're welcome!

[@AnnetteMurphyger]

Gratias

[@EasyLatin]

Libenter!

[@jasmine-bahr-f1919]

Gracias ❤

[@EasyLatin]

A ti!

[@dirtyh661]

I hear something similar in the Pentecostal church when they speak in tongues

[@Yohann_Rechter_De-Farge]

Gratias 👍🏻

[@EasyLatin]

Libenter!

[@AnnetteMurphyger]

Longsman Latin

[@gandalfstormcrow8439]

I guarantee the ancients who spoke Latin Didn't sound the same. Just ask anyone from Texas. Or New York. Or Ireland. Or, better yet, China! Because Latin would be the adopted lingua franca 😜

[@gandalfstormcrow8439]

All that weed... I can only vaguely remember hearing about Senators? teasing about rural? accents.

[@EasyLatin]

You're exactly right, that's why there are different Romance languages. But the classical pronunciation is like Received Pronunciation in England, where it's the way the intellectuals spoke.

[@ecelsozanato5603]

One example: the German word KAISER corresponds directly with CAESAR

[@EasyLatin]

Yes

[@donsena2013]

True enough, Καῖσαρ is the rendering of the name “Caesar” in each of the four gospel accounts and in the Acts of the New Testament (Koine) Greek, closely, and perhaps perfectly, resembling the original Latin. Indo-European descended into proto-Italo-Hellenic, which descended into proto-Italic, from which came most of the languages of ancient Italy -- among them, Latin

[@EasyLatin]

Thanks for commenting!

[@DiscipulusMundi]

"Ita sane se habet non numquam forma enuntiandi, ut litterae in ipsa scriptione positiae non audiantur enuntiatae." means "It is indeed sometimes the case with forms of expression that letters placed in the writing itself are not heard when pronounced." It means the opposite of your translation. non numquam = sometimes

[@motivacion.ancestral]

[@EasyLatin]

Thanks!

[@Ueberrushung]

3:20 the translation is not correct. I think you missed the „Non“ before numquam.

[@jessejordache1869]

I took it for four years in high school/jr high school (my fourth year was just my teacher finding things for me to translate while reading -- there's no standard Latin IV curriculum in NY) and I still pronounce it as church Latin, mostly. Because a) it sounds better, and b)nobody knows who the hell "Kikero" is. Fun fact: if you know Latin well, you can usually work out what something written in French means. But it's virtually useless for figuring out Italian.

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, Church Latin is beautiful. It's very melodic. And yes, French preserves much of Latin in its spelling, but the pronunciation is very different

[@Dranok1]

"Pick the pronunciation according to your purpose." So what you're basically saying, to those with a desire to learn Latin, is that if you _want_ to learn Latin for the academic challenge of listening to how the Romans spoke at the time of Christ, then learn Classical Latin (and possibly contribute to the research towards a definite study), if your _need_ to learn Latin to communicate with those of religious backgrounds (e.g. Catholic & Orthodox adherents around the world for whom Latin is most certainly not a "dead" language) or because it's part of your job (e.g. a lawyer in many Western countries, a scientist studying old texts or using terminology from Linneus, etc.) then learn Mediaeval Latin because it has so far lasted twice as long as the other, and people with whom you will converse will either not understand you or just think you are being pompous for using the "modern reconstructed" pronunciation rather than the one that would have been used by the likes of Newton, Linneus, and half the mathematicians and biologists of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

[@justkiddin84]

Gratias.

[@EasyLatin]

Libenter

[@AnnetteMurphyger]

Did Jeaus Christ speak Latin? .

[@StaffyDoo]

Latin pronunciation is fairly trivial to any Italian and Spanish (Castilian) speaker, and to some extent to most Portuguese speakers (specially from Portugal). Good effort, though 🫡

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, it's very similar to those languages.

[@rodrigosampaio1364]

Wtf is B.C.E?

[@macbrahan]

What Christians would refer to as BC

[@brendanquinn6894]

BC not BCE

[@EasyLatin]

BCE is the scientific term

[@brendanquinn6894]

@@EasyLatin Before Christ is the Catholic term .

[@ziadsalloum848]

Everytime I hear BCE/CE instead of BC/AD, I leave. When someone takes political stance, I take mine :)

[@mikkyo3509]

it's definitely not how you pronounce english, more like german, italian or french letters. like a, e, i. it sounds different.

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, it's closest to Italian and Spanish

[@egay86292]

which Latin? spoken when? spoken where? spoken by whom? you cannot step into the same river twice.

[@MW-100]

BC AD

[@KevDaly]

You mean the Romance languages are Latin's descendants, not its ancestors. The ancestor comes first.

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, I misspoke ; )

[@georgeorourke7156]

Interesting video but do you realize you are not speaking proper English? 2:30 ...sounded similarly NOT similar and differently not different. Adverbs modify verbs not adjectives. It is painful to hear people make such grammatical errors. Maybe that is how Latin dialects evolved !

[@EasyLatin]

Thanks, but I have to disagree with you there, because "sound" is a copulative verb, which is a verb that links a subject to a complement that refers to the subject. This is why we say, "Sounds good" when we are agreeing with plans and not "sounds well." So "similar" and "different" are complementing the subject, not modifying the verb.

[@georgeorourke7156]

Here is my point: If you say they sounded tired then indeed tired has to be an adjective because it is they that were tired. But they sounded similarly because in this case what is similar is the sound not they. Coffee and toffee are not similar but they sound similarly. But I will grant you that most people automatically use an adjective after sounds.

[@EasyLatin]

@@georgeorourke7156 I can't find anyone that uses "sound similarly". If I type it into Google, it asks me, "Did you mean: "sound similar"

[@georgeorourke7156]

You are correct There are only three verbs that are always linking verbs. These are: be, become and seem. Sounds can be either a linking verb or an action verb, but if there is no direct object it then must be a linking verb hence the use of an adjective. I stand corrected.

[@snuggles03]

and thats BC..

[@perrob]

BC

[@mladenzrnic2669]

Do you know that the Latin language was used as a magical language to summon the devil, to cast magic, before he would set foot in the Catholic Church.

[@EasyLatin]

Yes, by Harry Potter XD

[@H.L.-fj6zd]

what a load of crap 💩 quid onus crap

[@vincentmaloney5835]

I don't like the way you pronounce the word "wine" in Latin. The same with Veni, vidi, vici. You pronounce the sound "v" wrong. It sounds like American Latin. LOL

[@gandalfstormcrow8439]

Vats vrong, Wincent?😜😘🇺🇲

[@EasyLatin]

Hahaha

[@EasyLatin]

I like the V sound better too, but if you listen to the video, the classical pronunciation of the V was a "w" sound. That's also why they sometimes used V's instead of U's.

[@vincentmaloney5835]

@@EasyLatin That's not the way they pronounce in Europe.

[@anthonywhelan5419]

I learnt Latin in Catholic primary and secondary schools. We were taught to pronounce words in church Latin. According to my teachers the Church deliberately changed some of the pronunciations, such as C (which was pronounced the same as the Greek letter, K Kappa) to make liturgical chants more musical. A good example would be the Christmas carol Angels we have Heard on High. The softening of C/Kappa entered into romance languages and English, for example the rule, C followed by E, I or Y is softened to sound like S or sometimes sounds like 'sh' as in special. Protestant America loved Latin too but stuck with the ancient pronunciation, hence the American unsentimental affectations demanded by church liturgical music. Of course, as Catholicism has grown in the USA, the Italian / liturgical pronunciations have increased. Anyway, the majority of people in the Roman Empire spoke Koine Greek as their lingua franca.

[@H.L.-fj6zd]

quid onus crap?

[@stephenhall3515]

This has interesting content but the presenter's creaky voice wrecks it.

[@nancybryson5488]

I love his voice!

[@nancybryson5488]

I like his voice.

[@alexanderSydneyOz]

What sort of halfwit would make sense of comment? Perhaps His accent and voice does not reek of scholasticism, but his words and message sure do and that’s all in which I’m interested. How dare to complain and criticise someone’s voice when they present highly interesting information and plainly are well schooled on the subject.