Latin pronunciation

[boxlodge]

When I was at school in the 40's our headmaster was the music teacher and he insisted that the pronunciation of the letter 'c' in Latin words in Christmas carols was hard and not the Italian 'ch' sound, so should be 'In Dulki Jubilo' for example. I believe this was based on the idea that the modern Italian language is NOT related to Latin. Apparently this view was held by a small number of scholars and I wondered if anyone still holds this view?

[boxtops]

I too learned of Bodisseah - not Boudicca

We didn't know where she meant when our geographic teacher spoke of the Ballyaricks - we called them Baleerics.

[Delaval]

Remember when King Canute became King Cnut? Caused a few problems with the dyslexics.

[boxtops]

when did we drop the AE from Aethelred?

[MarkRae]

What about cacti and formulae? In theory, the ought to be pronounced KAT-tee and FOR-moo-lie :-)

[Delaval]

Merely a fad, trying to emphasise the original name/pronunciation in the original language. To me Beijing will always be Peking, as will Mumbai be Bombay.

[boxtops]

that's how I pronounce FOR-moo-lie, MR....

[MarkRae]

No wonder my travel agent was having difficulty finding a flight to Byzantium...

[MarkRae]

Really, Boxy? You sure you don't slip a sneaky 'y' in between the first two syllables...? ;-)

[boxtops]

That's interesting, now I think - I do say Formyula, but the plural is Formulee (because it sounds more foreign, I guess!)

I get a lot of odd looks when I say (as I do) that something has been discussed in several fora.

[Delaval]

"Computer says no". How about going to Constantinople instead?

[jake-the-peg]

There have been great changes in pronunciation - particularly in the 14th Century

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift

If we all pronounced things as we did before then it would be hilarious!

For a start we'd all have to start pronouncing silent Ks

Try that and insist that you're right and everybody else is wrong!

Original is not the same as correct!!

[BlueToffee]

Amo....amas....amant.....and that's about all I remember from my Latin lessons

[jno]

this is hardly new. Way back in Goodbye Mr Chips, written in 1934, Chips was grumbling about having to say we kiss 'im instead of vicissim.

Italian is certainly related to Latin, though.

Boudicca's different; Boadicea is just thought to have been a typo. It looks as though someone mistranscribed it in the Middle Ages, reading the second C as an E.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica#Boudica.27s_name

[Delaval]

Congrats, even though you have skipped the third person singular and the first and second persons plural.

[jno]

Original is not the same as correct

Jake, I think the rule's different for living languages. Given that nobody but the pope speaks Latin any more, there's no reason not to establish a regular pronunciation for it, though it might be rash to assume that all Romans in all eras pronounced it the same way.

[Delaval]

"Given that nobody but the pope speaks Latin any more"

Someone else must, otherwise he's have no one to talk to.

[boxtops]

sorry jno, there is a thriving community of people who study Latin at evening class still. It helps so much with vocabulary to understand Latin and Greek roots for words now in everyday use.

[Jonathan-Joe]

A P Herbert, humorist, wrote "Uncommon Law" in 1935. In the case "Rex v Venables and others", the Lord Chief Justice, also disliked the New Pronounciation of Latin and dismissed the advocate using it.
http://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.co.uk/2005/06/latin-pronunciation.html

[MarkRae]

That's right, Boxy. Latin taught me more about language than anything else. I recall my first ever Gaelic lesson where the teacher was explaining that my Gaelic name is "Marc" unless you're calling it to my face in which case it's "a Mhairc". I remember thinking to myself oh, right, Gaelic has a vocative case. Fine, next...

[boxtops]

how do people understand about manual labour, and pedestrians?