Re: Latin pronunciation puzzle


John Atkinson wrote:

> I'd be very interested to learn just what you understand phonetically by
> the word "softer" in your phrase "ph, softer than f"?

I thank for the three replies, and reply here to John, for he poses
a simple question: what is 'my' difference between ph and f ?
When I pronounce ph, my lower lip is in a loose contact with
my upper teeth, yet when I pronounce f, the lower lip is in close
or a closer contact with the upper teeth, and when I exagerate
the f by pressing the lip to the teeth I produce a steaming fff ...
The word fanfare is appropriately written with f, while someone
turning a phrase into a frase is likely to fizzle a spray on his
listener.

Traditional phonetic rendering as found in dictionaries doesn't
consider such differences, yet finer electronical phonetic
modeling surely does. Computer generated voice messages
are composed of sound elements taken or distilled from
actual voice recordings. Electronical dictionaries of the future
will certainly implement such a facility, allowing a user to hear
a pronounciation via earphone. And I bet that in the finer
electronical modeling also the Finnish pronounciation of the
ending -oui contains a w-sound somewhere between ou and i.

As for the Latin vowels: a is a, not ae; e is e, not y; i is i,
not aye; o is o, not a coyote's howl; and u is u, not a.

The English and Americans chew on them Latin vowels,
turning -i into -aye, whereas I respect Latin and slightly
modify the English name and word on a philological basis
by re-pronouncing the muted -gh as in rough tough enough,
relying on the old words burw(e) and barrow, thus producing
a proper Latin ending: Josephus Josephi, -phus -phi / -phy,
dsa-glOssous ad'n-b'rO-phy (a sopht ph, not a fizzling ff).

But I have no problem accepting different pronounciations,
which somehow resemble the natural biological variety
of animals within the limits of a given species.

Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch

.

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