Dies Irae in Classical Latin

In a sort of paradox again, like I did with such Catholic texts as the Lord's Prayer, I have recorded a text from the post-Classical Latin period in Classical Latin.

Yes, one would expect a Medieval Latin pronunciation for a text like this one. But we're allowed to let our imaginations run wild... what if Cicero or Caesar time-traveled a thousand years ahead?

This is how either of them would have recited the DIES IRAE, from the 12th century, in their standard and educated Latin accents.

Once again here, like I have done on my recording of Catullus 3, I make use of the Latin pitch accent, theorized to have been used by educated Latins, ultimately derived from an imatiation of the Ancient Greek standard speech, which is established as having had a pitch accent at the time. Having studied extensively the Ancient Romans' own explanations on the pronunciation of educated Latin speech, I am a firm supporter and believer that there was indeed a pitch accent used in formal occasions in the Golden Age of Latin -- a pitch accent which I adopt in my recitations.

Also adopted here is the organic rendition of final -m: nasalizing the preceding vowel, and influenced by the following consonant to be pronounced either as a dental ([n]), labial ([m]), or velar ([ŋ]). If final -m is found in isolation, or followed by a vowel, the preceding vowel is nasalized and lengthened.

This is, then, my rendition of the way an educated Roman would've recited the DIES IRAE during the Classical period.

How NOT to Speak Latin - A PSA

I'm often displeased by the way Latin is pronounced not only by students of the language, but especially by Latin teachers, scholars, and Classicists. It's one thing to make an effort and come up short on certain sounds; it's another thing to butcher up the language, and read it as if it were [insert your native language here].

I will let the video I created make the point — a  public service announcement by yours truly, followed by a performance, reading Catullus 3 in authentic Latin, along with an English translation.

What's different about this particular reading is my inclusion of the Latin pitch accent. The Roman grammarians in the Classical period wrote about the pitch accent, and their testimony is the evidence we have that it existed during that time. Its introduction is theorized to have been influenced by the pitch accent in Ancient Greek, and was used exclusive by the educated classes when speaking publicly; the popular speech retained the normal stress accent.

Just listen to the musicality of Latin when read properly — respecting meter, vowel quality and quantity, stress, and pitch — its connection to modern Italian is even more apparent.

Pater Noster in Latin and the Romance Languages

This is a project I had been wanting to work on for sometime.

It finally saw the light of day.

Here is the Pater Noster prayer recorded simultaneously, line by line, in Latin and in 7 Romance Languages: Portuguese, Galician, Spanish, Catalan, French, Italian, and Romanian.

It is a creation with a focus comparative linguistics, showcasing pronunciation and morphological similarities and differences among these languages through this religious chant.

The translations used are documented versions for each language. If a single translator had worked on all the languages presented, we would perhaps have translations that mirror each other word for word. As it is, the existing translations sometimes result in different word orders (i.e. Fr. que ton regne vienne vs. Sp. venga tu reino), or diverging roots in each language —  such as Latin DEBITA being maintained in all the Western Romance languages (dívidas, deudas, deutes, dettes, debiti), but Galician opting for ofensas. The Galician equivalent to DEBITA, débeda, is not attested in any Pater Noster translation that I could find, so ofensas was kept.

Harrius Potter 2

For the past two months, I have been using a lot more French, and Romanian is taking a rest at the moment. Not that I have ended my relationship with Romanian; not whatsoever. I have simply gone from using Romanian actively almost everyday to using French. It has to do with the people around me.

I will still continue with Romanian; I will write about my manele, and the like.

While I found myself in a circle of Romanian for many months, I now spend a lot of time with a friend from Québec. Incidentally, I'm being exposed extensively to the Québécois variety of French. I am learning the expressions and what feels natural for the Québécois to say (compared to the French).

Focusing on Romanian for the past year, I had not had the opportunity to use French in this fashion in a long time. In a way, I am reverting to French since at one point in the past I was in contact with French everyday as well.

People ask me at times if I don't get bored of the Romance languages, all so similar. But, see, this is why I don't ever get bored. I can wake up one day, and decide to listen to the news in French, then listen to a fado in Portuguese, then meet up with a Romanian friend. (I have talked in the past about how lucky I consider myself to live in Los Angeles, CA, a very multicultural city).

Or I can just go with Latin.

Speaking of which, I received the following this week.

Book number 2 of the Harry Potter series in Latin. I wrote extensively about the first book as I was reading it. You can expect me to do the same with the second one. I look forward to getting started with it.

Osama bin Laden mortuus

Nuntii Latini reports today about the incident by which the terrorist Osama bin Laden was killed:

Osama bin Laden, dux ordinis Al-Qaida et terrorista in orbe terrarum maxime quaesitus, Kalendis Maiis occisus est. Barack Obama, praesidens Civitatum Americae Unitarum, oratione televisifice habita nuntiavit eum mortuum esse impetu militari a parva manu Americanorum speciali in Pakistania facto.

Latebat Osama in villa quadam luxuriosa et bene munita prope urbem Islamabad aedificata, cum milites Americani ex helicopteris subitum ictum mortiferum in eum fecerunt. Corpus eius, cum certe agnitum esset, nulla mora interposita in Mari Arabico sepultum est.

[...]

Living Latin at its best — getting your world news in Latin:
praesidens Civitatum Americae Unitarum - the President of the United States of America
Aedes Alba - the White House
"Obama Osamam occidit!" - "Obama killed Osama!"

Refer to the full article on Nuntii Latini, where there is also mention of the Americani turbinibus vexati (the tornadoes that recently hit part of the United States).

Translator's Mishap

Or what we would ordinarily refer to as "translation fail".

The following showed up on my Facebook news feed recently.

Finis Harrii Potteri

IAM LIBRUM PRIMUM ORDINIS HARRII POTTERI HODIE PERFECI. NARRATIO OMNIS MULTUM MIHI PLACUIT. SPERO VOS LATINAM LINGUAM AMANTES OCCASIONEM CAPERE AD EUNDEM LIBRUM LEGENDUM.

FABULA OPTIMA FUIT UT TRISTIS SIM QUOD AD FINEM ADVENIT. AUCTOR LIBRII ATQUE INTERPRES, PERITI PRO OPERA SUA LAUDANDI.

PER ACTA HARRII ET AMICORUM EIUS, RONALDI HERMIONISQUE, MUNDUM SOMNIORUM MAGNIFICUM COGNOSCIMUS QUI NOS TRANSFERT DE CIVITATEM LONDINII AD SCHOLA DISCIPULORUM MAGICORUM HOGVARTENSI.

HAC EX ORDINE SECUNDUM LIBELLUM QUOQUE LATINE SCRIPTUM PERLEGERE MOX EXSPECTO, DE QUO HIC IAM SCRIPTUM EST.

DE LUDO QUIDDITCH IN FABULA INVENTO, AEQUE LOCUTUS SUM.

LUDUS QUIDDITCH

Vox Latina

As I approach the last chapter in the Harrius Potter book, I have acquired a copy of W. Sidney Allen's VOX LATINA: The Pronunciation of Classical Latin. I have worked with similar material on the subject, but have always wanted to get the opportunity to read through Mr. Allen's work. Already just reading the foreword, I like him. His words mirror exactly the way I feel about Latin — always giving much importance to an accurate, reconstructed Classical pronunciation. Ultimately, bringing Latin back to life, and, thus, creating a living Latin.

Quidditch explained

in Latin.

I knew when I started Harrius Potter that I wanted to record some passages from the book.

When I came to the part about Quidditch in the story, I knew it would be the selection I would record — the thorough explanation of a new concept in Latin seemed appealing.

In this section, Silvius is explaining to Harry Potter how the game of Quidditch is played. Silvius tells the inexperienced wizard that a Quidditch match requires three SECUTORES, one IANITOR, and two PERCUSSORES per team.

Harrius Potter Continued

I have continued my reading of the Latin version of Harry Potter. As I explained when I began this language adventure, my plan was to read the Romanian version alongside the Latin one. I followed this practice for the first few chapters of the story: I would read a few pages in one language, then read the same passages in the other language. This was great as it helped me to develop my vocabulary in both languages. However, it wasn't doing much to keep me interested in the storytelling — I was reading everything twice, once in Latin and once in Romanian, and, so the plot advancement felt slow in return.

I have to admit: at first, I wasn't intrigued by J.K. Rowling's story. For me, it began as a language experiment through which I would be involved with two languages simultaneously, neither of them being English. As the story developed, though, my interest for the plot grew with each page turned. Being that I wouldn't be able to progress fast enough to satisfy my thirst for knowing what would happen next to Harrius Potter, I put aside the Romanian version for good, and continued exclusively with the Latin. Ever since, I haven't been able to put down the book.

Nuntii Latini New Look

I was reading over the news in Latin on Nuntii Latini, and noticed a new design on the main page, one which I like more than the last one.

The pictures and the colors truly give it an ancient-newspaper-a-Roman-would-read type of look.

On the subject of Latin, I have been reading more Latin this week. I've continued my Harry Potter adventure in Latin for a few chapters, and have neglected the Romanian version for a bit; something to do with Harry being more exciting in the original Roman mother-tongue.

I have to admit: sometimes, when jumping from Romanian to Latin, I am tempted to read the Latin as if it were Romanian. In particular, the plural endings: Lat. latini vs. Rom. latini (in Latin, the final -i is fully sounded; in Romanian, it palatizes the preceding consonant). Just as well, sometimes, I have to stop and do a double-take with the vowel qualities since they are different in both languages — in Latin being more like in Italian and Spanish, while in Romanian, they are articulated differently; for instance, a > [a] in Latin, but [ɑ] in Romanian.

In the end, nothing beats finding out the latest in the Wikileaks scandal than finding out about it in Latin:

Source: Nuntii Latini

Dual language reading

I'm usually not the type to read novels. Most of the material I do read is academic in nature — non-fiction rather than fiction. I do make exceptions, however, though in order for me to take interest in any sort of fiction writing, it has to be in a foreign language. Killing two birds with one stone, if you will — the first objective is to get some practice in the target language; enjoying the story is a secondary effect, but a good plot is always welcomed.

My latest venture in the world of fantasy reading involves a well-known story: Harry Potter.

Why Harry Potter of all things, you may ask? The answer is simple. One, I have never watched any of the Harry Potter movies nor read any of the books. Number two, most importantly, it is one of the few books readily available in a number of languages. You see, the dual language reading I've been doing does not involve English at all — I am reading Harry Potter in Romanian and in Latin.

Ave, Maria

The second post with Ave in the title, only a few days after the first one, makes its way to Filius Lunae. Below, we have the Ave Maria (or Hail Mary) recited in Latin by me; just like I did with the Pater Noster, it is read with a Classical pronunciation. Refer to the previous post that discusses the details of this restored, Classical pronunciation in these prayers.

Ave, Aurora

Here's a poem composed in the 1800's by the Brazilian Antônio Lopes Castro. Written with the purpose of showing the affinity Portuguese has with Latin, this poem can be read in either of those two languages.

AVE, AURORA !

Salve, aurora ! eia, refulge !
Eia, anima valles, montes !
Hymnos canta, o Philomela,
Hymnos jucundos, insontes !

Quam pura, quam pudibunda
Es tu, aurora formosa !
Diffunde odores suaves,
Divina, purpurea rosa !

Es tu, aurora formosa !
Diffunde odores suaves,
Divina, purpurea rosa !

Eia, surge, vivifica
Pendentes ramos, aurora !
Aureos fulgores emitte,
Pallidas messes colora

Matutina aura, mitiga
Solares, nimios ardores;
Inspira gratos Favonios,
Euros, Zephyros protectores.

Eoa, Tithonia Diva,
Fecundos campos decora,
Canoras aves excita,
O serena, bella aurora !

Protege placidos somnos,
Inquietas mentes tempera,
Duras procellas dissipa,
Terras, flores refrigera.

Extingue umbrosos vapores,
O sol, o divina flamma !
Lucidas portas expande,
Tristes animos inflamma !

Salve, aurora ! eia, refulge!
Eia, anima valles, montes !
Hymnos canta, o Philomela,
Hymnos jucundos, insontes !

 
Portuguese spelling has been reformed since the writing of the poem, so it would look a little different if rewritten with today's standards, i.e. quam > quão; philomela > filomela; hymnos > hinos, and a few others (basically, the simplification of a number of graphemes, y > i; ph > f; th > t; ll > l; mm > m). Pronunciation-wise, there are differences as well, but, nevertheless understood, at least if read in Latin to a Portuguese speaker.
As explained in the article Consangüinidade Latim-Português by João Bortolanza (pg. 92 in a Brazilian university's magazine), the poem's author achieved his purpose by limiting the Latin verb forms to those of the second person singular imperative (canta, salve, refulge, protege, decora, excita, etc), and the present indicative form es, you are; and for nouns, using only the vocative singular (for feminine nouns like aurora, rosa, diva, etc.) and accusative plural (masculine and feminine nouns, which would end in -os and -as, respectively, and -es); all these forms are the same in Latin and Portuguese. Bortolanza also points out that the article had to be excluded completely, although it is very common in Portuguese but nonexistent in Latin. Bortolanza concludes this section by praising the author, Lopes Castro, and saying that it is no easy task finding common words in both languages, with identical roots and declensions.

Nuntii Latini

Continuing from my last entry about the different pronunciations of Latin today, I want to talk about Nuntii Latini, a Finnish radio program covering international news in Latin. Widely known and praised around the world, it considered a valuable resource for Latinists and students of the language alike.

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.

Pater Noster

The Lord's Prayer in Latin, read by myself, Filius Lunae, with a Classical pronunciation. This being an ecclesiastical text, it is usually read with what's referred to as a Church pronunciation. This pronunciation developed over the centuries, as Latin thrived as the European lingua franca throughout the Middle Ages. It is a direct development of Vulgar Latin, the Latin spoken by the Romans that eventually gave birth to the Romance Languages. Particular to this Latin of the Ecclesiastical type is Italian, the language which serves as the basis for this pronunciation.

Though commonly referred to as "pronunciations", like I have done above, I like to think of them as different accents, the type of which you would hear in any language by speaking to different groups of people: the English of Texas and London; the Spanish of Lima and Madrid. In essence, you would find a priest who reads Latin with this Italianate pronunciation, while a Classicist, though he may be familiar with both, would prefer the reconstructed pronunciation from the Golden Age of Latin (80 B.C.-14 A.D.).

Here I present to you my rendition of that reconstructed Classical pronunciation. Not having a recording of a Roman from that time period, there are some who will argue that we can never be sure of what the Latins sounded like. We have, however, the Romance Languages themselves, which tell us about their development from Latin, not to mention the accounts from Roman authors themselves, describing and prescribing the pronunciation of their language.
While I don't dislike the Ecclesiastical pronunciation, because, as I just mentioned, I simply consider it another accent of Living Latin (that is, Latin being used for communication purposes today), I do prefer the Classical one. I am confident that this is an accurate representation of the pronunciation of an educated Roman around the birth of Jesus Christ.

I will conclude by pointing out, briefly, the main differences between a Classical and an Ecclesiastical pronunciation. First, while some diphthongs are fully sounded in the Classical model, they are reduced in the Church pronunciation: Classical L. /aj/ and /oj/ (written ae and oe, respectively) are merged in Ecc. L. into /e/. Second is the palatalization of Latin c (pronounced /k/, always) before /e/ and /i/, just like in Modern Italian. Thus, caelo and cibo are pronounced /kajlo:/ and /kibo:/ in the Classical standard, and /tʃe(:)lo/ and /tʃibo/ in the Church one (cf. Italian cielo and cibo with the same exact pronunciation). As can be seen from these last two examples, vowel length, critical and phonemically important in Classical Latin, especially in poetry, is often ignored in the Ecclesiastical pronunciation of Latin. Thirdly, v is rendered as /w/ in the reconstructed idiom, and /v/ in the Italianate one; so vino, /wino:/ vs. /vino/. Lastly, written g goes through the same palatalization, or softening, as explained for c above before /e/ and /i/ in Church Latin, and the same goes for t before a diphthong started by i, i.e. ge /dʒe/, gi /dʒi/; ti /tsi/. For more information regarding these differences, follow this link.
Simply put, with few exceptions, Ecclesiastical Latin is Latin read according to the rules of Modern Italian orthography.

Vulgata

Just updating everyone on what I'm what doing language-wise: I have begun to read the Bible... in Latin! I'm at the point where I can just read the Vulgate quite smoothly, having to use a dictionary sparingly. For those not familiar with Latin, the Vulgate, as translated by St. Jerome, uses a Latin with constructions not as complex as those found with ancient authors, such as Cicero or Caesar. I'm definitely not at the point of just getting one of Cicero's texts and reading it comfortably; I will get lost soon. However, I have started reading Genesis, and I can just almost flow through it (that is, compared to reading a classical text).
More on that soon.

Let's look at how Genesis 1:1 compares throughout Latin and the Romance languages:

Latin
In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram

Portuguese
No princípio criou Deus o céu e a terra

Spanish
En el principio creó Dios el cielo y la tierra

Catalan
En el principi Déu va crear el cel i la terra

French
Au commencement Dieu créa le ciel et la terre

Italian
In principio Dio creò il cielo e la terra


Some Romance language versions have Latin caelum in the plural, i.e. Pt. os céus, Sp. los cielos, Fr. les cieux, It. i cieli.
French is the only one that doesn't use Latin principium, but instead uses a derivative of French commencer from Vulgar Latin *cuminitiare (cum + initiare). Au in the beginning comes from à + il, using Latin ad, while the others use Latin in.

Catalan is the only one here that doesn't use the perfect for Latin creavit, instead using a periphrastric past form, composed of anar + crear: va crear. This construction in most Romance languages developed into a periphrastric future, which is also found, though not used with the same frequency, in Catalan and distinguished from the periphrastric past by inserting an a between anar and the following infinitive: va a crear (cf. Sp. ). Thus, va crear does not mean "he is going to create", but rather "he created".

Notice also how the Portuguese and Spanish renderings maintain the subject, Deus, after the verb, while the other languages have moved it to the front. In Latin, as it's well known, there is no problem because of the declension endings: Deus is the subject and caelum and terram are direct objects. In the two languages that keep the Latin word order, Portuguese and Spanish, there is no confusion because the verb is singular and it's clear that Deus, Dios is the subject. In Spanish, particularly, this practice is quite common; that is, the order Verb-Subject-Object, and even Verb-Object-Subject and Object-Verb-Subject. Spanish can be as flexible as Latin in cases like this because of its own "personal a". The "personal a", which I've discussed before, acts as a direct object marker (it's used with indirect objects, but that deserves a separate discussion), called "personal" because it is to be used with animate objects, that is, to refer to people (though its uses have been extended to include more than that). This means that if in a sentence there is at least one animate object, the word order can and does vary just as in Latin, with the "personal a" functioning as an accusative-case marker, just like the Latin word ending, in this case "-m", does. Let's take the sentence Romulus saw Remus in both Spanish and Latin and compare their possible outcomes:

Spanish	Latin
Romulo vió a Remo	Romulus vidit Remum
Romulo a Remo vió	Romulus Remum vidit
A Remo Romulo vió	Remum Romulus vidit
A Remo vió Romulo	Remum vidit Romulus
Vió Romulo a Remo	Vidit Romulus Remum
Vió a Remo Romulo	Vidit Remum Romulus

Just like in Latin too, each of these has a different nuance and emphasis in Spanish. This is possible in Spanish, again, due to the use that evolved from Latin ad, in the other languages solely used with indirect objects. This "personal a" is not found in any other Romance language, at least standardly. In Catalan, is it common colloquially (e.g. No conec a ningú), though in the standard language it is avoided, labeled a castellanisme (i.e. coming from Spanish). It could actually be a feature that developed throughout, not maintained by the languages that exclude it, since in Lengadocian (Occitan) and some Italian dialects, there is record of this same "personal a", e.g. L'as vist a ton paire (also, regional French Tu l'as vu, à mon père) and Hai visto a tuo padre, compare Standard French Tu as vu ton père and Standard Italian Hai visto tuo padre, but Spanish Has visto a tu padre. In Portuguese, also, this "personal a" shows up in some liturgical texts, e.g. Amo a Deus, traditionally Amo Deus.