I often get asked about the importance of correct pronunciation. Why does it matter how you say it? – after all no one speaks Latin nowadays! Who knows how the Romans said it?
In one sense I suppose it does not matter how you say Latin words, although if you ever want to talk to another Latin enthusiast about the subject it might be difficult if you didn't say the words the same way. Imagine the situation for instance if you decided to take your Latin to undergraduate level and you arrived at university to find you were saying it differently to everyone else... rather embarrassing! For the purposes of IGCSE it is important to adopt a standard pronunciation. Firstly it is important when you come to the “scansion question” in the exam. Scansion can to a certain extent be worked out by rules and I do teach the rules in the course when we come to deal with the scansion question. However the aim of the rules is to enable you to read the lines with the correct scansion. That involves correct distinction between long and short syllables. The effect of Virgil's poetry often depends on the sound of the line which may not be correct if you are not saying the words “properly”. The course uses Latin Without Tears on the Mothers' Companion flashdrive as a textbook partly for this reason. The flashdrive includes audio as well as pdf files and everything is read out for you. That means that when you come to chant out your nouns, verbs etc. you will be doing it correctly automatically. Unless you have someone helping you who can pronounce Latin make sure you use the audio on the flashdrive. I was taught a slightly non-standard way of pronouncing Latin (sometimes called parochial Latin) where the most noticeable difference is that the letter v is pronounced as we say it in English not as a “w” sound. This is reflected in the method used on the Mothers' Companion. This makes no difference to scansion but you should be aware that many people will say Weni widi wici....
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |