# Latin/Spoken

This chapter\'s purpose is to demonstrate hands-on spoken latin using
dialogues, word lists, colloquial expressions and all that is needed to
grasp spoken latin.

It is recommended that you cover all verb, adjective and noun endings
and have read through the rest of the Latin book, or
at least the revision pages,
before you embark on this. Subjunctive, infinitive and indicative all
need to be well understood in order to complete this course.

At the end of every exercise there will be a show-hide exercise and
sometimes an English-Latin translation. There will often be referenced
footnotes showing where there have been quotes from original Latin
authors and tips to usage of sentences.

## Introduction

Latin as a language was spoken from its earliest origins all through the
middle ages to the renaissance and beyond by numerous students, scholars
and the educated nobility. Like all spoken languages, Latin evolved in
vocabulary and form. Often the vernacular languages influenced how Latin
was spoken. While there were many attempts to stay true to Ciceronian
form in speech and writing by scholars, most when they spoke the Latin
tongue used forms and vocabulary often derived from their mother tongue
which would have been incomprehensible to Classical speakers. Latin
grammar has remained fixed and unchanged for centuries.

The two most controversial issues about the living use of Latin (living
Latin) are pronunciation and the
introduction of new words. Regarding modern vocabulary, many schools
exist, and there is no consensus as yet. The Roman Catholic Church
publishes a lexicon (*Lexicon Recentis
Latinitatis*) with an
exhaustive number of modern words translated into Latin; often this is
done through cumbersome periphrases (e.g. a hippie is 'osor
conformitatis') and other times by arbitrary coinage of new words.

### Pronunciation

When speaking Latin, the choice is usually between **'ecclesiastical'
pronunciation** and **'classical' pronunciation**.

The **'ecclesiastical' pronunciation** nowadays usually refers to the
Italian pronunciation of ecclesiastical or 'Church' Latin, which is
still the official liturgical language of the Catholic Church. Desiring
uniformity, this Italian pronunciation is often encouraged as the
standard for Masses celebrated in the Latin language. It is however only
one of many regional systems of pronunciation. An example of the Italian
pronunciation can be found in this
video.

**'Classical' pronunciation**, like the Italian pronunciation, offers
consistency of sound across national borders. It also aims to be a
scholarly reconstruction of how ancient Romans spoke, or at least
educated speakers of the late Republican/early imperial period. It is
described in books such as the paradigmatic Allen\'s Vox Latina. An
example of classical Latin pronunciation can be found in this
video.

The sound of the classical pronunciation, in particular the replacement
of the 'v' sound with the 'w' sound, has been the subject of
controversy. It is, however, the clear favorite of the 'Living Latin'
movement, which has the fastest growing number of new speakers of the
language.

## Lessons

-   Basic conversations
-   Telling people where you\'re from and what language you
    speak

## Revisions

-   /Revision 1/
-   /Revision 2/
-   /Revision 3/

## Assessments

-   /Test 1/

de:Latein/ Gesprochenes
Latein

