Orthography
The writing system of the Latin language is an alphabet with a variable number of letters depending on whether one is using Classical Latin or Ecclesiastical Latin.
Classical Latin
Classical Latin employed the following alphabet with 23 letters.
| Letter | Name | Name (IPA) |
|---|---|---|
| A | Á | /aː/ |
| B | BÉ | /beː/ |
| C | CÉ | /keː/ |
| D | DÉ | /deː/ |
| E | É | /eː/ |
| F | EF | /ɛf/ |
| G | GÉ | /ɡeː/ |
| H | HÁ | /haː/ |
| I | ꟾ | /iː/ |
| K | KÁ | /kaː/ |
| L | EL | /ɛl/ |
| M | EM | /ɛm/ |
| N | EN | /ɛn/ |
| O | Ó | /oː/ |
| P | PÉ | /peː/ |
| Q | QV́ | /kuː/ |
| R | ER | /ɛr/ |
| S | ES | /ɛs/ |
| T | TÉ | /teː/ |
| V | V́ | /uː/ |
| X | EX, IX | /eks/ or /iks/ |
| Y | ꟾ·GRAECA | /iː ˈɡraika/ |
| Z | ZÉTA | /ˈzeːta/ |
Historically, there was no distinction between lowercase and uppercase letters in Classical Latin. Words were separated by interpuncts (·) instead of spaces. A sentence in Classical Latin would have thus looked something like this:
Example: Classical Latin Sentence
CAESAR·NON·SVPRA·GRAMMATICOS·EST
Additionally, long vowels were sometimes marked by an apex (´), although this was not a regular practice. When the letter I represented a long vowel, it was not written with an apex but was instead just written longer. A sentence in Classical Latin with long vowels marked would have thus looked something like this:
Example: Classical Latin Sentence
ET·FORTV́NAM·ET·VꟾTAM·ANTꟾQUAE·PATRIAE·SAEPE·LAVDÁS·SED·RECV́SÁS
Modern Conventions
Nowadays, people have developed more modern conventions when writing in Classical Latin in order to make the process easier and more comprehensible, especially for educational purposes.
Both uppercase and lowercase letters are used. The letter U u may be introduced. The letter V v is usually only used to represent consonants sounds, while the letter U u is used to represent a vowel sound. However, some authors do not add U and just use u as the lowercase version of V. Words are separated by spaces and sentences are separated by periods or question marks (for questions). Capital letters are only used at the beginning of the first word of a sentence and at the beginning of proper names. Macrons (¯) are consistently used to indicate long vowels (Ā ā, Ē ē, Ī ī, Ō ō, V̄ Ū ū). Short vowels may optionally be indicated by breves: Ă ă, Ĕ ĕ, Ĭ ĭ, Ŏ ŏ, V̆ Ŭ ŭ. A sentence following these conventions would look like the following:
Example: Modern Conventions for Classical Latin Writing
Et fortūnam et vītam antīquae patriae saepe laudās sed recūsās.
Ecclesiastical Latin
Ecclesiastical Latin employed the following alphabet with 25 letters - exactly the same as English without the letter W w.
| Letter | Name | Name (IPA) |
|---|---|---|
| A a | A | /a/ |
| B b | Be | /be/ |
| C c | Ce | /t͡ʃe/ |
| D d | De | /de/ |
| E e | E | /e/ |
| F f | Ef | /ef/ |
| G g | Ge | /d͡ʒe/ |
| H h | Ha | /ha/ |
| I i | I | /i/ |
| J j | Jod | /jɔd/ |
| K k | Ka | /ka/ |
| L l | El | /el/ |
| M m | Em | /em/ |
| N n | En | /en/ |
| O o | O | /o/ |
| P p | Pe | /pe/ |
| Q q | Qu | /ku/ |
| R r | Er | /er/ |
| S s | Es | /es/ |
| T t | Te | /te/ |
| U u | U | /u/ |
| V v | Ve | /ve/ |
| X x | Ix | /iks/ |
| Y y | I Graeca | /i ˈɡreka/ |
| Z z | Zeta | /ˈzeta/ |
Classical Latin Phonology
The pronunciation of Classical Latin is very simple and predictable, since its orthography is largely phonemic, especially when the modern conventions are obeyed.
Vowels
Classical Latin had five vowel phonemes and phonemic vowel length.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Mid | e eː | o oː | |
| Open | a aː |
The short vowels /i/, /e/, /o/, /u/ were probably pronounced with a relatively open quality and are likely to have been actualized as [ɪ], [ɛ], [ɔ], [ʊ], respectively. By contrast, the long vowels /iː/, /eː/, /oː/, /uː/ likely had a relatively close quality and were thus actualized as [iː], [eː], [oː], [uː], respectively. Occasionally, ⟨y⟩ might have been actualized as the phone [y(ː)], but most speakers probably approximated it as either /i(ː)/.
Nasalization
Vowels were actualized as long nasal vowels in before a word-final ⟨m⟩:
- dentem /ˈden.tem/ [ˈdɛn.tẽː]
The same thing occurred with vowels before nasal consonants (⟨n⟩ or ⟨m⟩) followed by a fricative (⟨s⟩, ⟨f⟩, /z/):
- censor /ˈken.sor/ [ˈkẽː.sɔr]
- consul /ˈkon.sul/ [ˈkõː.sʊɫ̪]
- inferōs /ˈin.fe.roːs/ > [ˈĩː.fɛ.roːs]
In both scenarios, the nasal consonant itself was not pronounced. Additionally, this type of lengthening is rarely indicating with macrons.
Diphthongs
Classical Latin had five diphthongs - /ae̯/, /oe̯/, /au̯/, /ei̯/, /eu̯/, represented by ⟨ae⟩, ⟨oe⟩, ⟨au⟩, ⟨ei⟩ and ⟨eu⟩, respectively. In some words such as “cui” and “huic”, ⟨ui⟩ represented a sixth diphthong /ui̯/, but this was the exception rather than the rule. When the two vowels do not represent a diphthong, the modern convention is to put a diaeresis (◌̈) on the second vowel - ⟨aë⟩ [ä.ɛ], ⟨aü⟩ [a.ʊ], ⟨eü⟩ [e.ʊ] and ⟨oë⟩ [ɔ.ɛ]. However, when ⟨eu⟩ spans a morpheme border, the diaeresis is usually omitted - “meus”.
Consonants
Stress Accent
Ecclesiastical Latin Phonology
Since Ecclesiastical Latin never had any native speakers, it had no single pronunciation. Instead, every speaker had their own pronunciation depending on where they were from and what languages they spoke.
However, around the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century, a pronunciation based on Italian become a universal standard used by the Catholic Church. This pronunciation is decribed below.
| Grapheme(s) | Phoneme(s) | Example | English Approximation |
|---|---|---|---|
| A, a | /ä/ | father | |
| Ae, ae | /ɛ/, /e/ | pet | |
| Au, au | /au̯/ | out | |
| Ay, ay | /ai̯/ | buy | |
| B, b | /b/ | ball | |
| C, c | /t͡ʃ/ before ae, e, i, oe, y | change | |
| /k/ before a, o, u; never aspirated | sky | ||
| Ch, ch | /k/ | pulcher | |
| D, d | /d/ | ddominus | bed |
| E, e | /ɛ/, /e/ | tempus | pet |
| Ei, ei | /ɛi̯/ | tempus | they |
| Eu, eu | /ɛu̯/ | tempus | pet |
| F, f | /f/ | forma | foot |
| G, g | /d͡ʒ/ before ae, e, i, oe, y | charge | |
| /g/ before a, o, u | god | ||
| Gn, gn | /ɲ/ | signum | canyon |
| H, h | Almost always silent | hora | |
| /k/ between vowels in some words | mihi | scorpion | |
| I, i | /i/ | vir | seep but short |
| J, j | /j/ | Gajus | yacht |
| K, k | /k/, never aspirated | kalendae | skirt |
| L, l | /l/ | calidus | slip |
| M, m | /m/ | magnus | meet |
| N, n | /n/ | nox | no |
| O, o | /ɔ/, /o/ | porta | sort |
| Oe, oe | /ε/, /e/ | poena | pet |
| P, p | /p/, never aspirated | pars | split |
| Qu, qu | /kʷ/ | quae | query |
| R, r | /r/ | rex | Rolled like in Italian or Spanish |
| Rh, rh | /r/ | ||
| S, s | /s/ | sacer | see |
| /z/ between vowels in informal situations | miser | zone | |
| Sc, sc | /ʃ/ before ae, e, i, oe, y | ascendere | shop |
| /sk/ otherwise | pascunt | busk | |
| T, t | /t/, never aspirated | timere | stop |
| /t͡s/ when followed by an unstressed i, unless preceded by s, t or x | natio | pizza | |
| U, u | /u/ | pulvis | cool but short |
| Ui, ui | /ui̯/ | ||
| V, v | /v/ | videre | vase |
| X, x | /ks/ | dexter | fox |
| /ɡz/ word initially between vowels | exaudi | exhume | |
| xc | /kʃ/ before ae, e, i, oe, y | excelsis | action |
| /ksk/ otherwise | exclamare | exclamation | |
| Y, y | /i/ | bradypus | seek but short |
In Ecclesiastical Latin, the distinction between long and short vowels is not made - all vowels are short.