Product Description

This is a reissue in paperback of the second edition of Professor Allen’s highly successful book on the pronunciation of Latin in Rome in the Golden Age. In the second edition the text of the first edition is reprinted virtually unchanged but is followed by a section of supplementary notes that deal with subsequent developments in the subject. The author also added an appendix on the names of the letters of the Latin alphabet and a select bibliography.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #301391 in Books
• Published on: 1989-08-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 148 pages

Review
'This book is a model of clarity and succinctness. Professor Allen picks his way through a maze of converging and diverging evidence, and presents an intelligible and credible account of what classical Latin sounded like.' Phonetica

Customer Reviews

Weeny, Weedy and Weaky
An intellectual tour de force for lovers of the Latin language. This study deduces the pronunciation of ancient Latin by comparing how Latin-derived words are pronounced in the successor languages such as French, Italian and Spanish; by analyzing how loanwords from other languages, particularly Greek, were rendered into Latin; and by drawing inferences from puns and other forms of wordplay found in the works of Roman authors. I was taught at school that g in Latin was always hard. Not so: Plautus makes a joke which depends for its effect on the similarity of sound between 'ignem magnam' (a large fire) and 'inhumanam' (inhuman). Clearly medial gn was pronounced as in modern Italian 'signora', and 'ignem magnam' would have sounded like 'inyem manyam'. Try reading one of Cicero's denunciations of Catiline aloud, using the correct pronunciation established in this important book. It sounds more like a harangue of Mussolini than a weighty sententia delivered by the grave Roman statesman of popular imagination. The experiment reminds us that the Romans were the ancestors of the modern Italians, something we tend to forget. Other joys in this book include the establishment of the correct pronunciation of v and c in Latin. Now we know how Caesar really pronounced Veni, Vidi, Vici.

This book is a must for anyone imaginatively interested in the pronunciation of ancient Latin. It would have been nice if the producers of Derek Jarman's Sebastiane had read it before recording the film's notorious Latin dialogue.

A fascinating and thorough introduction
The topic may be somewhat obscure, but for those with an interest in how Caesar spoke, this is an excellent and thorough introduction to Classical pronunciation that assumes no prior knowledge of phonetics. Moreover, the text is clear and easy to follow, although the modern reader might have preferred translations of the Latin quotations.