Introduction and Copyright

Readings from WHEELOCK'S LATIN, the classic introductory Latin course based on ancient
authors, by Frederic M. Wheelock, revised by Richard A. LaFleur, readings by Mark Miner.
WHEELOCK'S LATIN (6th edition revised) is Copyright © 2005 by Frederic M. Wheelock,
Martha Wheelock, and Deborah Wheelock Taylor, revision Copyright © 2005 by Richard A.
LaFleur, performance Copyright © 2005 by Mark Robert Minor. All rights reserved.
WHEELOCK’S™ is a trademark of Martha Wheelock and Deborah Wheelock Taylor.

Introduction to Pronunciation
Please refer to page Roman numeral 41 in WHEELOCK'S LATIN.
The following discussion indicates approximately the sounds of Latin and how the letters were
used by Romans of the classical period to represent those sounds (there are several differences
of pronunciation in medieval and ecclesiastical Latin).

Vowels
Vowels in Latin had only two possible pronunciations, long and short. Long vowels were
generally held about twice as long as short vowels (cf. half notes to quarter notes in music) and
are marked in most beginning texts with a MACRON or LONG MARK (e.g., ā); vowels without a
macron are short (e.g., a). Students should regard macrons as part of the spelling of a word,
since the differences of pronunciation they indicate are often crucial to meaning (e.g., liber is a
noun meaning book, while līber is an adjective meaning free). The pronunciations are
approximately as follows:
Long Short
ā as in father: dās, cārā a s in Dinah: dat, casa
ē as in they: mē, sēdēs e as in pet: et, sed
ī as in machine: hīc, sīca i as in pin: hic, sicca
ō as in clover: ōs, mōrēs o as in orb: os, mora
ū as in rude: tū, sūmō u as in put: tum, sum
y, either short or long, a vowel with a sound intermediate between u and i, as in
French tu or German über—one of only a few sounds in classical Latin that do not
occur in modern English

Diphthongs
Latin has the following six diphthongs, combinations of two vowel sounds that were collapsed
together into a single syllable:
ae as ai in aisle: cārae, saepe
au as ou in house: aut, laudō
ei as in reign: deinde
eu as Latin e + u, pronounced rapidly as a single syllable: seu.
 oe as oi in oil: coepit, proelium
ui as in Latin u + i, spoken as a single syllable like Spanish muy (or like English gooey,
pronounced quickly as a single syllable). This diphthong occurs only in huius, cuius, huic,
cui, hui. Elsewhere the two letters are spoken separately as in fu-it, frūctu-ī.

Consonants
Latin consonants had essentially the same sounds as the English consonants with the following
exceptions:
bs and bt were pronounced ps and pt (e.g., urbs, obtineō); otherwise Latin b had the same
sound as English letter b (e.g., bibēbant).
Latin c (English c) was always hard as in can, never soft as in city: cum, cīvis, facilis.
g was always hard as in get, never soft as in gem: glōria, gerō. When it appeared before n,
the letter g represented a nasalized ng sound as in hangnail: magnus.
h was a breathing sound, as in English, only less harshly pronounced: hic, haec.
i usually functioned as a consonant with the sound of y as in yes when used before a vowel
at the beginning of a word (iūstus = yustus); between two vowels within a word it served in
double capacity: as the vowel i forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel, and as the
consonant English y (reiectus = rei-yectus; maior = mai-yor; cuius = cui-yus); otherwise it
was usually a vowel. CONSONANTAL i regularly appears in English derivatives as a j (a letter
added to the alphabet in the Middle Ages); hence maior = major, Iūlius = Julius.
m usually had the sound it has in English, pronounced with the lips closed: monet. There is
some evidence, however, that in at least certain instances final -m (i.e., -m at the end of a
word), following a vowel, was pronounced with the lips open, producing a nasalization of
the preceding vowel: tum, etiam.
q, as in English, is always followed by consonantal u, the combination having the sound kw:
quid, quoque.
r was trilled; the Romans called it the littera canīna, because its sound suggested the snarling
of a dog: Rōma, cūrāre.
s was always voiceless as in see, never voiced as in our word ease: sed, posuissēs, mīsistis.
t always had the sound of t as in tired, never of sh as in nation or ch as in mention:
taciturnitās, nātiōnem, mentiōnem.
v had the sound of our w: vīvō = wīwō, vīnum = wīnum.
x had the sound of ks as in axle, not of gz as in exert: mixtum, exerceō.
ch represented Greek chi and had the sound of ckh in blockhead, not of ch in church:
chorus, Archilochus.
ph represented Greek phi and had the sound of ph in uphill, not the ph sound in our
pronunciation of philosophy: philosophia.
th represented Greek theta and had the sound of th in hothouse, not of th in thin or the:
theātrum.
The Romans quite appropriately pronounced double consonants as two separate consonants;
we in our haste usually render them as a single consonant. For instance, the rr in the Latin word
currunt sounded something like the two r’s in the cur run (except that in Latin each r was
trilled); and the tt in admittent sounded like the two t’s in admit ten.

Elision
When a word ending in a vowel is followed by a word beginning with a vowel, often one or
both vowels were shortened in pronunciation, something like an English contraction. Do + not
→ don't. In the absence of firm ancient evidence for a uniform practice, in these readings,
ELISION is avoided in the early chapters and handled in various ways thereafter. Thus,
peccāre + ōdērunt → peccāre~ōdērunt
sī + animus → sī~animus
fortuna + est → fortuna~est
Elision also occurred after final m and before initial h. Thus,
remedium + īrae → remedium~īrae
vīta + hūmānna → vīta~hūmānna
benevolentiam + habet → benevolentiam~habet
Virgil uses three elisions in a row to express fear of the cyclops: Polyphemus et
monstrum~horrendum, ~informe, ~ingens*.
On the other hand, when clarity or emphasis are desired in prose, words may be pronounced
with a gap or HIATUS between vowels: testulā␣illā␣exsiliō decem␣annōrum multātus est.

*[Vix ea fatus erat, summo cum monte videmus ipsum inter pecudes vasta se mole moventem
pastorem Polyphemum et litora nota petentem, monstrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui
lumen ademptum. (Virgil, The Aeneid Book III Lines 655-665)
He’d barely spoken, when we saw the shepherd Polyphemus himself, moving his mountainous
bulk on the hillside among the flocks, and heading for the familiar shore, a fearful monster, vast
and shapeless, robbed of the light.]

Syllables
In Latin as in English, a word has as many syllables as it has vowels and diphthongs.
Syllabification: In dividing a word into syllables:
1.Two contiguous vowels or a vowel and a diphthong are separated: dea, de-a; deae, de-ae.
2.A single consonant between two vowels goes with the second vowel: amīcus, a-mī-cus.
3.When two or more consonants stand between two vowels, generally only the last
consonant goes with the second vowel: mittō, mit-tō; servāre, ser-vā-re; cōnsūmptus, cōn-
sūmp-tus. However, a stop (p, b, t, d, c, g) + a liquid (l, r) generally count as a single
consonant and go with the following vowel: patrem, pa-trem; castra, cas-tra. Also counted
as single consonants are qu and the aspirates ch, ph, th, which should never be separated in
syllabification: architectus, ar-chi-tec-tus; loquācem, lo-quā-cem.
Syllable quantity: A syllable is LONG BY NATURE if it contains a long vowel or a diphthong; a
syllable is LONG BY POSITION if it contains a short vowel followed by two or more consonants or
by x, which is a double consonant (= ks). Otherwise a syllable is short; again, the difference is
rather like that between a musical half-note and a quarter-note.
Syllables long by nature (here underlined): lau-dō, Rō-ma, a-mī-cus.
Syllables long by position (underlined): ser-vat, sa-pi-en-ti-a, ax-is (= ak-sis).
Examples with all long syllables, whether by nature or by position: lau-dā-te, mo-ne-ō, sae-
pe, cōn-ser-vā-tis, pu-el-lā-rum.
Even in English, syllables have this sort of temporal quantity, i.e., some syllables take longer
to pronounce than others (consider the word “enough,” with its very short, clipped first syllable,
and the longer second syllable), but it is not a phenomenon we think much about. The matter is
important in Latin, however, for at least two reasons: first, syllable quantity was a major
determinant of the rhythm of Latin poetry, as you will learn later in your study of the language;
and, of more immediate importance, syllable quantity determined the position of the stress
accent, as explained below.

Accent
Words in Latin, like those in English, were pronounced with extra emphasis on one syllable (or
more than one, in the case of very long words); the placement of this STRESS ACCENT in Latin
(unlike English) followed these strict and simple rules:
1.In a word of two syllables the accent always falls on the first syllable: sér-vō, saé-pe, ní-
hil.
2.In a word of three or more syllables (a) the accent falls on the next to last syllable
(sometimes called the PENULT), if that syllable is long (ser-vā́-re, cōn-sérvat, for-tū́-na); (b)
otherwise, the accent falls on the syllable before that (the ANTEPENULT: mó-ne-ō, pá-tri-a,
pe-cū́-ni-a, vó-lu-cris).
Because these rules for accentuation are so regular, accent marks (as opposed to macrons)
are not ordinarily included when writing Latin; in this text, however, accents are provided in
both the PARADIGMS (sample declensions and conjugations) and the chapter vocabularies, as an
aid to correct pronunciation.

LANGUAGE IS SPEECH: The Importance of Pronunciation and Reading

Aloud
Although oral-aural communication and conversational skills are sometimes—and
unfortunately—given little stress in the Latin classroom, nevertheless, a correct, or at least a
consistent pronunciation, is essential to the mastery of any language. An ability to pronounce
Latin words and sentences aloud, according to the rules provided in this introduction, will also
enable you to “pronounce” correctly in your mind, and as you think of a word, to spell it
correctly.
As you begin your study of Latin, remember that it did not merely consist of written texts to
be silently read, in fact, the Romans themselves nearly always read aloud, but it was for
centuries a spoken language—a language learned and spoken by Roman boys and girls, in fact,
just as your own native language was acquired and spoken by you in your childhood, and not
only by famous orators, poets, and politicians.
You should apply all four language learning skills in your study every day, listening and
speaking, as well as reading and writing. Always pronounce paradigms and vocabulary items
aloud, and most especially, read aloud every Latin sentence or passage you encounter; and
always read for comprehension, before attempting a translation into English.