German pronunciation of Latin

The German pronunciation of Latin is understood to be the pronunciation used for Latin texts, which does not correspond to the scientifically reconstructed Latin pronunciation and, in the meantime, no longer corresponds to the current school pronunciation of Latin , but is based on pronunciation rules of German . It is therefore primarily a traditional pronunciation . Characteristic is the pronunciation of the "c" before "e, i, ae, oe" as [ts] instead of [k].

For a long time, German pronunciation was the only standard in the German and Slavonic language areas. Until around 1900 it was also generally used as the school pronunciation of Latin. The German pronunciation is used today - in addition to the Italian pronunciation - especially for sacred vocal music. It is also used for the remaining Latin elements of the liturgy of the Catholic Church . In contrast, they are rarely heard in Latin classes at schools and universities these days.

Vowels

In contrast to the classical Latin pronunciation, the distribution of long and short vowels does not obey complex rules; there are only guidelines. These are:

Long vowels can only be used in stressed syllables if their vowel is long at all. Example: "Romani", the "Romans" = [ ʁo.ˈmaː.ni ]; “Facere”, “do”, “make” = [ 'fa (ː) .tsə.ʁə ].
As in (standard) German, a vowel that comes before a double consonant is always pronounced briefly. Example: "stella", "star" = [ 'stɛla ]
Vowels in open syllables are always elongated. Examples:
- lat. "globus", "ball" = [ ˈɡloːbʊs ]
- lat. "pink", "rose" = [ ˈʁoːza ]
- lat. "Venus" = [ ˈveːnʊs ] / [ ˈfeːnʊs ]

As in German, there is a correspondence between vowel quality ( vowel opening) and vowel quantity (length):

Letter	Short vowel	Long vowel
A / a	[ a ]	[ aː ]
E / e	[ ɛ ] / [ ə ]	[ eː ]
I / i	[ ɪ ] / [ i ]	[ iː ]
O / o	[ ɔ ]	[ oː ]
U / u	[ ʊ ]	[ uː ]
Y / y	[ ɪ ] / [ i ] / [ ʏ ]	[ iː ] / [ yː ]

Notes on this:

The short <e> is weakened in unstressed syllables to the Schwa [ ə ] (e.g. “facere”, “do”, “make” = [ 'fa (ː) .tsə.ʁə ], like German “Please” = [ bɪtə ]).

The short (and possibly also y, see below) is also articulated in a closed manner at the end of the word (e.g. “Romani”, the “Romans” = [ ʁo.ˈmaː.ni ], like German “Willy” = [ ʋɪli ]). Before vowels (except ) it is pronounced like a German <j> [ j ]. Two are separated by a glottal beat (e.g. Iulii = [ juːliʔi ]).

The <y>, which was used in Latin to reproduce the Greek Ypsilon , is pronounced either as a ü or an i sound, depending on the convention, the latter being the older variant. In this case, the aforementioned i-rule also applies to the y.

Vowel digraphs

In classical Latin there were four diphthongs that are realized differently in German:

The Latin <ui> is realized as [ ui ], i.e. as a sequence of and .
The Latin <eu> is realized as [ ɔɪ ], as in German "you" [ ɔɪç ].
The Latin <oe> is pronounced like a German <ö> [ øː ] and is always long.
The Latin <ae> is pronounced like a German <ä> [ ɛː ] (or [ eː ]) and is always long.

Consonants

For almost all consonants there is a clear phoneme-grapheme correspondence (this is always the same as in German):

Letter	pronunciation
<b>	[ b ]
<d>	[ d ]
<f>	[ f ]
<g>	[ g ]
<h>	[ h ]
<l>	[ l ]
<m>	[ m ]
<n>	[ n ]
<p>	[ pʰ ]
<qu>	[ kʋ ]
<t>	[ tʰ ]
<x>	[ k (ʰ) s ]
<z>	[ ts ]

As you can see, the and <t> are pronounced as breathed in German . The glottic stroke is appended to a word that begins with a vowel letter . There are several options for the following consonants:

<c> is before <a>, <o> (except in the connections <ae> and <oe>) and like a German <k> [ kʰ ] and before <ae>, <e>, , <oe> and <y> pronounced like a German <z> [ ts ].
<r> is pronounced either [ r ], [ ʀ ] or [ ʁ ] depending on the regional variety of German .
As in German, <s> is normally voiced [ z ] before a vowel , but is pronounced voiceless [ s ] as a double letter .
<t> is normally pronounced like a German <t> [ tʰ ], but before followed by a different vowel like a German <z> [ ts ].
<v> is either pronounced like a German <v> [ f ] or (in a variant slightly based on the classical) is pronounced like a German <w> [ ʋ ].
The digraphs <th>, <ph> and <ch> appearing in Greek foreign and loan words are, as in German, [ tʰ ], [ f ] and [ ç ] (after <ae>, <e>, and < y> and at the beginning of the word), or [ x ] (after <a>, <o> and ) pronounced.

As in German, , <d>, <g> and <s> fall victim to the hardening of the final voice .