Untitled Document

Latin 107 – Mr. Ocaña NAME:

Alphabet – Part I: Consonants DATE:

Upper Case	Lower Case	Pronunciation	Latin Ex.	English Ex.
A	a	vowel	--	--
B	b	Like English b before s or t is pronounced as English p	Bonus Urbs, observo	boat
C	c	Hard c, sounds like k	Centum	cat
D	d	Like English d	Decem	dad
E	e	vowel	--	--
F	f	Like English f	f¯abul¯a	federal
G	G	Hard g, as in English get, never soft as in nice Gn in the middle of a word may be pronounced as the ngn in English hangnail G followed by u: pronounce both gu-	regina magnus pinguis	God hangnail
H	h	Slight aspiration	H¯ora	hope
I	i	Vowel before a vowel becomes a consonant and is pronounced like English y	-- iam	-- yam
K	k	Hard c, same thing as c	Kalendas	kilo
L	l	Like English l	Lupus	Long
M	m	Like English m	Multus	Man
N	n	Like English n	Nox	None
O	o	vowel	--	--
P	p	Like English p	Pater, Puella	Pen
Q	q	Always followed by u, in group qu, pronounce both	quinque	quick
R	r	Should be rolled like in Spanish	R¯amus	Esp. rojo, rodeo
S	s	Is pronounced voiceless, as in English sing, sit, never like z as in rose	Salv¯e	Sing, sit
T	t	Like English t	Militia, tr¯es	tea
V	u	Vowel before a vowel becomes a consonant and is pronounced like English w	-- vidi, villa	--
X	x	Like English –ks-	exercitus	exam
Y	y	Same as vowel i	Zephyrus	--
Z	z	Like English –ds-	Zephyrus	zone

--> Remarks:

The Latin alphabet does not have the letters j or w
The letters k, y and z occur in few Latin words; y and z occur only in words taken over by the Romans from the Greeks
The same happens with ch-, ph-, th-, rh-: They were only used to write in Latin some Greek words; they are pronounced respectively like c, p, t, r
Where double consonants occur, both consonants are pronounced: puella = puel-la, bella = bel-la; nunc; etc.

--> Pensum:

1. Why did Romans take so many words from the Greeks?

2. How do we know the way Latin was pronounced, if we actually don’t have any sound or oral record of any Roman speaking Latin?