Latin/Pronunciation Consonants

Consonants[edit | edit source]

Consonant	Latin example	Classical^[1]		Ecclesiastical^[2]
Consonant	Latin example	Sounds like	Listen	Sounds like	Listen
b	barbaria	bob	Audio	bob	Audio
c followed by e, i, ae, oe, y	caelestis	cat	Audio	chat	Audio
c otherwise	cattus	cat	Audio	cat	Audio
d	dīrēctus	dad	Audio	dad	Audio
f	fānāticus	fun	Audio	fun	Audio
g followed by e, i, ae, oe, y	genus	gag	Audio	gerbil	Audio
g otherwise	gubernātor	gag	Audio	gag	Audio
h	herba	honey	Audio	honor^[3]	Audio
i at beginning of word, j^[4]	Jēsūs	yes	Audio	yes	Audio
k	Kalendae	keep	Audio	keep	Audio
l	littera	loll	Audio	loll	Audio
m	maximus	mom	Audio	mom	Audio
n	numerus	nun	Audio	nun	Audio
p	populus	pop	Audio	pop	Audio
q	quantum	quiet	Audio	quiet	Audio
r^[5]	religiō	roar	Audio	roar	Audio
s	miser	sassy	Audio	sassy	Audio
t followed by i and another vowel and preceded by any letter other than s, t, x	differentia	tatter	Audio	tsetse	Audio
t otherwise	toga	tatter	Audio	tatter	Audio
v^[6]	vīvārium	wow	Audio	vine	Audio
x in words beginning with ex followed by a vowel, h, or s	exhālō	axe	Audio	eggs	Audio
x otherwise	extrā	axe	Audio	axe	Audio
z	zōdiacus	adze	Audio	adze	Audio

For a much fuller version of this guide, see this Wikibooks page.

↑ Wheelock, p. xlii
↑ de Angelis, pp. 13-21
↑ h is always silent except in the words mihi and nihil, where it is pronounced as k.
↑ There was no letter J in the old Latin alphabet; instead the letter I was used. In fact, J was not even formally considered a separate letter from I in English until 1828 (Sacks, pp. 186, 196). In this book, we will not use J, and so we will use Iēsūs and not Jēsūs. Vicipaedia also does not use J.
↑ Use the alveolar trill (hear this on Wikipedia), and not the retroflex approximant (hear this on Wikipedia).
↑ As with J, the letter V was not considered distinct from U in English until 1828 (Sacks, p. 327). We will use V throughout this book. Vicipaedia also uses V.