ANST - Latin Pronunciation In Period & the SCA

[Keith E. Brandt, M.D.]

M'Lady Talana: Greetings from Friar of Ockham!

Thank you for your short note on Medieval Latin pronunciation. You have 
gone a long way to intrigue me. I have only found references to classical 
and church Latin, and have clung to the classical version as being more 
correct. Do you, perchance, have a book that discusses Medieval 
pronunciation that you could copy the relevant pages for me? I would be 
very much in your debt, and would certainly repay copy and mail expenses.

Could you also confirm/deny something? I found a web page a couple of years 
ago that stated that "modern" church Latin came about when Pope Pius X felt 
that Latin was dying from the Church and pushed to bring back Latin, but 
did so with essentially Italian pronunciation. I have tried many searches 
to find this page again, but is has so far eluded me.

My searches also seem to indicate that Medieval Latin isn't taught until 
the student has had about 2 years of classical Latin. Do you know of an 
introductory text that starts with Medieval? Is there a reason that 
classical is the jumping off point, or have my searches just been too narrow?

I find Latin fascinating, but unfortunately don't have the time or ability 
to take a formal class. I would at least like to be able to pronounce it 
correctly, by medieval standards!

In Service,
Galen

>Si tu vales, valeo!
>
>There are several points on which classical Latin and medieval, or church,
>Latin, differ with regards to how they are pronounced.  In classical Latin,
>the letters C and G are always hard, and V is prononced as a W.  In
>medieval Latin, C and G are soft if followed by E, I,  or Y, and V is
>sounded like V.  In medieval Latin, SC is sounded as SH.
>
>One of those old jokes classical Latin students pull on medieval Latin
>students is to hit them with the following phrase, an inscription from a
>monastery refectory (dining hall) door:  Papa fidem scit  (The Pope knows
>the Faith).
>
>Read it out loud, with a hard C, as for good, classical Latin.
>Now, read it out loud, with the medieval "sh" sound.
>
>
>Talana
>Who can't believe she's really passing on such a silly old joke, but who
>did survive Latin classes that switched back and forth between a classicist
>and medievalist.
>
>
>On  Tue, 02 Mar 1999 15:32:33 PST  "Matthew Kies"
>highlycafeinated at hotmail.com wrote:
>
>>as was most recently pointed out (see below), the common usage of latin
>>in our fine kingdom stinks somethin ferocious... not only would "vivant"
>>[wee wunt] be more correct than "vivat" [wee wut], but to be accurate,
>>you are not usually meaning "they live" or "he/she/it lives"... usually
>>what you are doing is wishing them well, or congratulations, a long
>>life... in which case any of the following are appropriate:(singular)
>>"VIVE" [wee way] (PLURAL) "VIVETE" [wee wa tay]
>>                       "SALVE" [sul way]     "SALVETE" [sul way tay]
>
>
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