Latin Pronunciation
As she was spoke



The pronunciation of Latin in the first century has been determined with a fair degree of certainty from the evidence of ancient authorities and inscriptions and inferences from the romance languages. The following guide is somewhat simplified but can be accepted as a reasonably accurate description of the sounds of Latin as spoken by educated Romans. The accent falls as in English, on the second to last syllable of the word if that syllable is long, or on the third to last syllable if the second to last is short. The stress was weaker than in English and may have had an element of pitch in it. In the following list, long vowels are marked with a line.
A
RAT (inclining towards RUT)
EI
PAYEE
A-
RATHER
EU
AY-oo
AE
TRY
F
As in English
AU
TOWN
G
GO
B
As in English
GN
HANGNAIL
BS
APSE
H
As in English, but faint
BT
APT
I
(consonant) YES
C
CAR
T
KEEN
CH
EMPHATIC
I
KIN
D
As in English
K
As in English
E
PEN
L
LET
E-
PAIN
M
MAN (hardly sounded)
N
As in English
S
SISTER (never ROSE)
NC
FINGER
T
STOP
O
ROB
TH
TAKE
O-
ROBE
U
FULL
OE
TOY
U-
FOOL
P
APT
V
WIN
PH
PILL
X
SIX
QU
QUITE
Y
French U (a greek sound)
R
Scottish trilled R
Z
ZERO

This makes our mispronunciation of a well known word like 'CAESAR', become 'KYSSARR'

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