Re: Latin pronunciation puzzle

Franz Gnaedinger wrote:
> 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,

Same here! (Lax vs. tense) But then, I started with pronouncing <ph> as
[p<h>] and graduated from that to your pronunciation whereas I always
pronounced f correctly.

> 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.

Perhaps it's ffrase that would spray a listener (In one of PG
Wodehouse's stories, a gent named Ffinch... corrects people who
mispronounce his name as Finch...:-)

> 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,

or [j]

> not aye; o is o, not a coyote's howl; and u is u, not a.

So, is Caesar [kEsAr]?

> 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,

Do you repronounce plough as pflug?:-)

.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Latin pronunciation puzzle
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