Pronunciation of Latin in English Definition

Latin
noun

1. The language of ancient Rome and its empire, which became a dead language (see under language) well over a thousand years ago, but was adopted as the language of education, government, the church, the law and cultured society in medieval Europe. As a result many English words are derived from it.
2. A person of Italian, Spanish or Portuguese extraction.
3. An inhabitant of ancient Latium in central Italy.

adj

1. Relating to, or in, the Latin language.
2. Applied to languages derived from Latin, especially Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
3. Said of a person: Italian, Spanish or Portuguese in origin.
4. Passionate or easily excitable.

Example: his Latin temperament
5. Referring or relating to the Roman Catholic Church.

Etymology: Anglo-Saxon: from Latin Latinus of Latium.

Info:

Most Latin words and phrases used in English are said with a strongly anglicized pronunciation, which is quite different from the way they were pronounced in ancient Rome. Other Latin expressions came into English from church Latin, or from medieval Latin, which were pronounced yet another way.

It is therefore not always easy to predict the exact anglicized pronunciation of Latin words and phrases, but the following rules generally apply:

○ Unstressed i's are pronounced /N/.

○ Stressed i's are usually pronounced /aN/, as in ad infinitum /ad NnfN'naNtBm/ and bona fide /'boLnB 'faNdN/, but if they are short they too are pronounced /N/, as in ab initio /ab N'nNGNoL/.

○ At the end of a word, Latin -i is pronounced /aN/, as in the plurals cacti and stimuli, and in technical scientific names such as Musci /'mHsaN/, the mosses.

○ The letters ae are normally pronounced as /i:/, as commonly in technical scientific names such as Compositae /'kKm'pKzNti:/, the botanical name for the family of flowering plants that includes the daisy and dandelion.

Occasionally, and unpredictably, some Latin words and phrases are not normally anglicized in pronunciation. In curriculum vitae, for example, vitae is normally pronounced /'vi:taN/ as in Classical Latin or /'vi:teN/ as in church Latin, rather than the expected /'vaNti:/ of anglicized Latin.

As examples of the pronunciation of other vowels, note the following inter alia /'NntB'reNlNa/, quod erat demonstrandum /kwKd 'Drat dDmKn'strandBm/, pro bono publico /proL 'boLnoL 'pLblNkoL/, modus operandi /'moLdBs Kpe'randaN/.

Pronunciation of c and g varies in different contexts:

○ Before a and o: c and g are pronounced /k/ and /g/ respectively.

○ Before e and i: c is usually pronounced /s/, as in circa /'sM:kB/, and g is pronounced /dF/, as in fungi /'fHndFaN/.

○ However, before i: c (and also t) may be pronounced /G/, as in prima facie /'praNmB 'feNGN/ and ab initio /ab N'nNGNoL/.