Latin Pronunciation: Two Methods
Latin pronunciation can be tricky. For instance, how do we pronounce veni, vidi, vici?
Is it “vaynee, veedee, veechee” or “waynee, weedee, weekee”?
Well, now, that depends. The problem is, while the Latin language itself hasn’t changed much over the past two thousand years, we’ve pronounced it any number of ways.
Today, there are two main methods of pronunciation. You can make a good argument for each, and each has points in its favor.
Restored Classical
The most common method in universities, public schools, and in many private schools is what we call the Restored Classical Pronunciation. This method represents the best efforts of scholars over the past couple of centuries to recreate the sound of Latin in the 1st century BC. The 1st century was the “Golden Age” of Latin Literature. This was the age of Vergil’s Aeneid, the poetry of Horace and Ovid, Cicero’s speeches, Caesar’s Commentaries, and many classic creations. These literary treasures have been continuously read, studied, and enjoyed over the past two thousand years.
In the era when these great works were born, people heard literature recited more often than they read it. Unfortunately, we can’t know more than two millennia later precisely how the listeners of these texts heard them. Everyone who was alive at the time passed away many generations ago, and of course audio recording technology was far in the future.
This is where those 19th century scholars come in. While they couldn’t bring back the exact sound of Ancient Rome, they came up with the best recreation possible given a distance of almost two millennia. They determined that the letter “c,” for instance, always sounds like a “k.” We can be sure because ancient Latin writers always transliterated the Greek letter kappa (κ) as “c.” That’s why Restored Classical Latin uses that pronunciation.
Following Clues
In a similar way, we know that in the 1st century BC the letter “v” sounded more like a modern “w.” In this case, the way Greek writers transcribed Latin gives us a clue. They consistently rendered the Latin “v” as oυ (omicron-upsilon), which makes an “oo” sound. The name “Valerius,” for instance, is written Ουαλέριος (Oualerius) in Greek.
Scholars have also relied on ancient commentaries on language, well-attested patterns of linguistics development, and other forms of evidence in rediscovering much of the sound of Golden Age Latin.
So, if your priority is to recreate the sound of Vergil, Horace, or Cicero as closely as possible from a distance of two thousand years, this is your method of pronunciation.
Ecclesiastical Pronunciation
The second common method is the Ecclesiastical Pronunciation, more commonly “Church Latin.” Latin supplanted Greek as the language of the Western Church early in the first millennium AD. This is the pronunciation the Church has preserved over almost two thousand years of continuous use.
During that time, Latin was not simply the preserve of Popes, priests, and monks. From at least the fourth or 5th century up until just a few decades ago it was the language every Catholic Christian heard every Sunday and holy day in the liturgy of the Mass. It was the language in which even illiterate believers learned and recited prayers. Every peasant in Western Europe knew the Pater Noster (Our Father) and Ave Maria (Hail Mary).
Latin held sway in more than just religion during this time. It was the medium of all scholarship and all serious literature in Western Europe. It wasn’t until groundbreaking works like Dante’s Commedia in the late 13th century and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in the 14th that modern languages such as Italian and English became literary languages.
Note well that Dante and Chaucer are closer to our time than they are to Vergil’s and Cicero’s. By several centuries.
Latina Aeterna
That history is a large part of the reason why I prefer to use the Ecclesiastical pronunciation on my website and in my online classes.
It’s in the website’s name, after all: Latina Aeterna, Eternal Latin. I don’t want to present Latin as merely an artifact of people who who passed away two millennia ago. Latin is a living language that people of many different places and nations have kept in unbroken use since the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. And they weren’t just reading the classic works of ancient authors. Latin was in daily use as a language of prayer and worship. It was also the medium in which the latest scholarly and literary works made their appearance.
Using a pronunciation that disappeared toward the beginning of that long and glorious history implies that the language itself passed away long ago. It can even give plausibility to the false charge that Latin is a “dead language.” It makes more sense to pronounce the language in a way closer to the pronunciation that most people would have used over the greater part of that history.
Venite Adoremus
There’s a practical consideration that goes along with that as well.
All of the many Latin language musical compositions from the last millennium and a half are intended to sound more like Ecclesiastical Latin than like Restored Classical. None of them sounds “right” in the Classical pronunciation. Take, for example, the well-known Christmas Carol Adeste Fideles (“O Come All Ye Faithful”). Despite the fact that Latin is this song’s original language, it seems to be less than 300 years old. It was first published in 1751.
And how is it supposed to sound? Consider the following line:
Natum videte, regem angelorum
We normally pronounce it “Nahtum veedaytay, rejem anjelorum.” There’s a reason why you’ve probably never heard it sung as ““Nahtum weedaytay, reggem anggelorum.” Try it if you don’t believe me.
Now, one could certainly say the same thing about applying the Ecclesiastical Pronunciation to classical literature. I have two responses to that.
The Aeneid Test
For the first, let’s use Vergil’s Aeneid as an example. It is one of the most commonly read works of non-religious literature over the past two thousand years. It has never been out of print. In the Middle Ages it was actually the primary text for teaching Latin. And just about everyone over the greater part of that time would have encountered Vergil’s unmatchable dactylic hexameter verse using something much like the Ecclesiastical Pronunciation. They would not have even known about the most distinctive sounds of Restored Classical Pronunciation.
Second, nobody is on record, at least as far as I know, as saying that it sounded bad. They placed Vergil among the most accomplished and admirable poets. Dante even cast the ancient poet as his own guide through Hell and Purgatory in the Commedia. Vergil’s verse still sounded beautiful, even after the sound of the language changed.
I’m with Dante and company on this one. Golden Age Latin literature still sounds great, even with the Ecclesiastical Pronunciation.
You Can’t Please Everyone
Now in the interests of full disclosure, I have to confess that not everyone shares my opinion. I once expressed this same opinion in a comment box on Fr. John Zuhldorf’s blog. Fr. Zuhlsdorf, more commonly known as Fr. Z, has more than a passing familiarity with Ecclesiastical Latin. He’s a big promoter of the Traditional Latin Mass, and often live-streams his own Latin Masses.
Nevertheless, Fr. Z expressed something akin to disgust at the thought of reciting Vergil’s hexameters in anything other than the Classical Pronunciation. I don’t remember his exact words, but he gave the definite impression that he considered any such notion as one of the worst ideas ever hatched in the brain of fallen humanity.
I suppose you can’t please everybody.
Latina Ubique
But even if you can’t agree with that (lookin’ at you, Fr. Z) there’s another practical consideration. You’ll rarely hear the Restored Classical Pronunciation outside of the Latin classroom, or at least outside of the academic context. We encounter Latin, however, in all sorts of other places. As we have already noted, Latin is still an everyday language in the liturgy, music, and prayer life of the Church, even if it no longer enjoys the preeminence it once did.
But it’s not limited to the academy and the Church. It’s everywhere. We encounter it daily, often without realizing it, in countless quotes, phrases, allusions, mottoes, and loan words embedded in ordinary English. When we come across these fragments of the Lingua Antiqua they are invariably in either Ecclesiastical or some other more relatively modern mode of pronunciation.
Let’s go back to Julius Caesar’s proud (and endlessly quoted) boast after his swift and overwhelming victory at the Battle of Zela: veni, vidi, vici : “I came, I saw, I conquered.” I can’t recall anyone outside of a Latin class ever pronouncing it “waynee, weedee, weekee.” In the outside world is invariably comes out “vaynee, veedee, veechee.” That is, in Church Latin.
How do you pronounce Cicero?
Consider also the case of Marcus Tullius Cicero. No, the pronunciation “Sissero” is not Ecclesiastical Latin. The letter “c” in Church Latin never sounds like an “s.” The great Roman orator’s name in Ecclesiastical Latin is “Cheechero.” The Restored Classical rendering, however, is even further from our English pronunciation. Here we don’t even have the aspirated “ch” sound that appears in Church Latin. In restored Classical Latin “C” always and only soundeds like our “k.” Cicero’s name using the Classical pronunciation is “Keekero.”
Verbum Ultimum
Again I’m not arguing that one method is better than the other. Even now in my secular teaching job I use the Restored Classical. In other places I use Ecclesiastical. Different modes of pronunciation are appropriate to different contexts.
Latina Aeterna and my online classes are intended to accommodate the widest possible range of interested parties. The Restored Classical Pronunciation will be more suited to the background and interests of some, the Ecclesiastical to others. But it makes no sense to switch back and forth. That would only confuse everyone. For the reasons I give above, I believe the Ecclesiastical Pronunciation is best suited to that task.
I welcome any constructive and respectful comments or any questions.
Plurimas gratias ago!
Images above from Pixabay unless otherwise noted
