X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Latin spelling and pronunciation


Latin spelling and pronunciation

In his Vox Latina: A guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin, William Sidney Allen remarked that this pronunciation, used by the Catholic Church in Rome and elsewhere, and whose adoption Pope Pius X recommended in a 1912 letter to the Archbishop of Bourges, "is probably less far removed from classical Latin than any other 'national' pronunciation"; but, as can be seen from the table above, there are, nevertheless, very significant differences.

A short-lived convention of spelling long vowels by doubling the vowel letter is associated with the poet Lucius Accius.



see also