Does anyone know how to pronounce Latin?

[Pyramus]

I think it should be pronounced 'day-ous' with the ou like in you, but as said before, noone knows for sure.

And about the most important language in history, that's probably Sanskrit not Latin.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

(if you couldn't speak it you were considered to just say ba-ba (like a baby)...hence, our word babarian)

Why do I keep seeing this statement all over the place?

Barbarian is *not* a Latin derivative word. At least, not originally.

It's a Latin mutation of the Greek word "βάρβαρος" - specifically, it refers to the "bar, bar, bar" sound the Greeks heard in non-Greek languages, and meant "foreigner" or "non-Greek," and, by extension, "uncivilized."

 

[The Other Librarian]

The long i sounds like the i in "machine", the short u sounds like u in "put". "dee-us"

 

[The Other Librarian]

For the other letters, do as in English, it should work. No diphtongs.

Actually Latin has 6 dipthongs.

ae = ai in "aisle" (carae, saepe)
au = ou in "house" (aut, Laudo)
ei = as in reign (deinde)
eu, a rare sound in latin not found in english; like latin e + u (seu)
oe = oi in "oil" (coepit, Proelium)
ui = "gooey" in english, or spanish muy (huius, cuius, huic, hui are the only examples in Latin. Elsewhere it is not a dipthong.)

 

[Desdichado]

Why do I keep seeing this statement all over the place?

Barbarian is *not* a Latin derivative word. At least, not originally.

It's a Latin mutation of the Greek word "βάρβαρος" - specifically, it refers to the "bar, bar, bar" sound the Greeks heard in non-Greek languages, and meant "foreigner" or "non-Greek," and, by extension, "uncivilized."

Quite right. I've actually never come across anyone claiming it to be Latin, though.

And for what its worth, there is a cognate to βάρβαρος in Sanskrit, showing that the word barbarian does have (arguably) a genuine Indo-European pedigree. Although clearly in most Western languages, whatever that cognate may be was replaced by the loanword from Greek.

 

[Desdichado]

Actually Latin has 6 dipthongs.

ae = ai in "aisle" (carae, saepe)
au = ou in "house" (aut, Laudo)
ei = as in reign (deinde)
eu, a rare sound in latin not found in english; like latin e + u (seu)
oe = oi in "oil" (coepit, Proelium)
ui = "gooey" in english, or spanish muy (huius, cuius, huic, hui are the only examples in Latin. Elsewhere it is not a dipthong.)

Also, iu = u in "use", usually spelled ju (Julius) pronouned YOO lee oos

 

[Turjan]

Actually Latin has 6 dipthongs.

ae = ai in "aisle" (carae, saepe)
au = ou in "house" (aut, Laudo)
ei = as in reign (deinde)
eu, a rare sound in latin not found in english; like latin e + u (seu)
oe = oi in "oil" (coepit, Proelium)
ui = "gooey" in english, or spanish muy (huius, cuius, huic, hui are the only examples in Latin. Elsewhere it is not a dipthong.)

I really don't know whether my school latin was corrcect in any way (as correct as it can be ), but are you sure that all of your examples are true diphthongs? We always spoke 'ae' flat like the vowel in 'bad', and 'ei' was handled as two truely separate vowels ('de-inde'), 'oe' was also a flat sound like in 'fir'. We handled 'au', 'eu' and 'ui' (as in your example) as diphthongs, though. As I said, it's just school latin, so it may be wrong.

 

[The Other Librarian]

I really don't know whether my school latin was corrcect in any way (as correct as it can be ), but are you sure that all of your examples are true diphthongs? We always spoke 'ae' flat like the vowel in 'bad', and 'ei' was handled as two truely separate vowels ('de-inde'), 'oe' was also a flat sound like in 'fir'. We handled 'au', 'eu' and 'ui' (as in your example) as diphthongs, though. As I said, it's just school latin, so it may be wrong.

Well it is a bit academic, not set in stone. But checking my reference material, Wheelock's Latin lists those six, as does Langenscheidt's Pocket dictionary, and Cassell's Latin & English Dictionary lists four of the six.

At school we certainly spoke ae and ei as dipthongs. Even studying Latin at university though, pronounciation was never stressed much, as the focus was on translating texts, not conversation, so my academic knowledge of prononciation is probably a lot better than my actual pronounciation.

 

[tarchon]

Was the pronounced long, for instance, or did it slip into a schwa type of sound? We simply don't know.

I think I know the controversy to which you refer, but in the form you express it, that's not true. It clearly wasn't long in 2nd declension nouns and it was not a schwa (in the sense of being a class of decolored vowels), though the exact quality of the vowel is in some question.

Either "dyuss" or "DEE-uss" depending on whether the 'i' is long or short.

 

[Desdichado]

Well, my knowledge of Latin specifically is limited; my knowledge of comparitive and historical linguistics a bit more generally is broader. So yeah, I may not have got the details right of that particularly pronunciation controversy.