Of concern here is the pronunciation used by the newscasters. Their website states that Nuntii Latini is "a weekly review of world news in Classical Latin"*. Indeed, the Latinity of their work cannot be questioned, the style of their articles being reminiscent of various ancient authors. Their pronunciation, however, while very clear and comprehensible, has aspects that are not considered part of the Classical standard. And so, their speech is more derived from the Classical model, combining a few features from the Ecclesiastical norm.
Below, I show a table with the different pronunciations, along with the one used by Nuntii Latini, showing the mixed model:
| Classical | Ecclesiastical | Nuntii Latini | |
| ae | [aj] | [e] | [e] |
| oe | [oj] | [e] | [e] |
| ci | [ki] | [tʃi] | [ki] |
| ce | [ke] | [tʃe] | [ke] |
| gi | [gi] | [dʒi] | [gi] |
| ge | [ge] | [dʒe] | [ge] |
| v | [w] | [v] | [v] ([ʋ]) |
| y | [y] | [i] | [y] |
| ph | [pʰ] | [f] | [f] |
| ti | [ti] | [tsi] | [ti] |
| sce | [ske] | [ʃe] | [ske] |
| qu | [kw] | [kw] | [kʋ] |
| gn | [ŋn] | [ɲɲ] | [ŋn] |
All the pronunciation features that Nuntii Latini retains which match the Ecclesiastical one were characteristics of spoken Latin by the time of the Roman Empire's fall. Others, like ph and y were found only on loan words from Greek and were problematic even during the Roman Republic's prime, since they weren't part of Latin's native phonetic inventory; thus, along with ch ([kʰ]) and th ([tʰ]), were most likely only pronounced correctly by the educated class.
What is of interest here is the last transcription: qu pronounced [kʋ], which corresponds neither to the Classical nor the Ecclesiastical model. This particular pronunciation is very close to [kv], which sounded very unnatural to my ears at first, for I deemed that combination quite "un-Romance"- or "un-Latin"- like (in the Romance languages, Latin /kw/ gave first either [kw] or [k]). This is the only aspect of Nuntii's pronunciation I would personally change.
Concerning the pronunciation model as a unit, some variation is understandable. For instance, while there exists an Ecclesiastical model for Catholics worldwide to follow, there will always be some regional variation due to the fact that people with different native languages and language backgrounds are learning the language; this, even with the Vatican being quite active in promoting the use of Latin for liturgical purposes (see their website in Latin, for instance). And so, the same has to apply to the Classical standard. As long as those Classicists and Catholic Priests are making a conscious effort to abide to the pronunciation standard (rolled r's, for instance, as in Spanish and Italian, and not like the typical French or English r), I can applaud their work; and so I do for the people at Nuntii Latini.
7 comments:
What is of interest here is the last transcription: qu pronounced /kʋ/, which corresponds neither to the Classical nor the Ecclesiastical model. This particular pronunciation is very close to /kv/, which sounded very unnatural to my ears at first, for I deemed that combination quite "un-Romance"- or "un-Latin"- like (in the Romance languages, Latin /kw/ gave first either /kw/ or /k/). This is the only aspect of Nuntii's pronunciation I would personally change.
The /kv/ realization of QV is found in German speakers of Latin. According to Wikipedia Finnish, like German, lacks a /w/ phoneme.
Not only does Finnish lack a /w/, but it also lacks /v/—'v' being realized in Finnish as, indeed, ʋ. I suspect that what you are hearing here is merely Latin spoken with a Finnish accent.
Just found your blog via languagehat.com. Very interesting. I am learning Catalan and French so I will keep my eye on this blog.
Z. D. Smith is correct. Moreover, different Finnish universities have different pronunciation traditions. Mine, Åbo Akademi, uses the pure classical pronunciation. I have not studied more Latin than is absolutely necessary, but I would pronounce Radiophoniae Finnicae Generalis as [radio'fo:niai finnikai gene'ra:lis].
Yes, you guys are right in that it is a Finnish pronunciation there. I do mention in my post that I am aware of different regional accents of Latin, even if following the Classical standard.
The thing is that, like I say in the entry, is that Nuntii Latinii is heard by Latinists worldwide; it is, indeed, an influential medium. And so, in a way, I expected that these minor regional features would not be there. In the end, though, they do provide a great service, so I can't complain (that much). ^^;
I think their accent is HORRIBLE!!! I can hear the finnish accent all they way when they speak latin which nearly put me off latin altogether.
I personally wouldn't call it horrible. Can we really afford to discriminate those who do use Living Latin, as little as Latin is used nowadays?
What we can do is strive for a good, accurate pronunciation, and recommend to others that they do the same. Short of that, we can pretend that pronunciations like the one Nuntii Latini uses, with its several quirks, is one of several accents, like any modern language would have — Church Latin is one accent, Classical another one, Finnish Classical Latin by Nuntii Latini is another one.
Post a Comment
Make sure your comments include a name or username. Anonymous comments are subject to deletion.