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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ken Dorney, post: 2714149, member: 76086&quot;][USER=70832]@Aidan_()[/USER]&nbsp; in another post brought up a really good and relevant question.&nbsp; How was Latin (specifically) pronounced?&nbsp; Certainly any dead language can be a compete mystery, especially so when many of us have never had any kind of linguistic education.&nbsp; This question interested me early on in my experience with ancient coins.&nbsp; How does one pronounce the words that we can clearly see written on the coins that we are collecting?</p><p><br /></p><p>Over many years and with my personal experience with language I have come to the conclusion that there is no possible method in which anyone can possibly (or even remotely) know or realistically even suggest how any ancient language might have been spoken or pronounced. </p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, I know, this is blasphemy for some (logic for others).&nbsp; I have run afoul of my opinion before on other forums.&nbsp; I had not intentionally or knowingly done so but in essence my opinion invalidated the life work of (two that i know) linguistic scholars.&nbsp; Now I do not pretend to be more educated than any scholar in any field.&nbsp; But I do have common sense on my side of the argument.</p><p><br /></p><p>Language changes:&nbsp; Never before in human history has this been more obvious than now.&nbsp; Honestly, I have a difficult time understanding my kids frequently (but isn’t that inherent between generations?).</p><p><br /></p><p>But, back to pronunciation.&nbsp; I think it can be put into a few simple categories:</p><p><br /></p><p>Regional</p><p>As a young man I had no idea nor any exposure to any differences in language (other than what i saw on television).&nbsp; When I joined the Navy it was a real eye opener.&nbsp; I was exposed to people from all corners of the country and all their different accents.&nbsp; While I had a tough time understanding the guy from Kentucky I obviously was able to converse quite comfortably with the guy from Los Angeles.&nbsp; For many of us we were speaking the same language but we had difficulty understanding one another.</p><p><br /></p><p>Generational</p><p>I will only give examples from my own experience.&nbsp; Let’s use my mother and my father-in-law.&nbsp; While I grew up in the same house (obviously) as my mother, she speaks very differently than I do (and this is common to my in-laws).&nbsp; While my mother might say for Wednesday “wends-deey” I say “wends-day”.&nbsp; Why is that?&nbsp; I have no idea.&nbsp; But it is certainly significantly different.&nbsp; And that also ties into the regional component.&nbsp; That same word might be pronounced much differently in other regions but it also has the generational component tied in.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ethnic</p><p>My father was from Ireland.&nbsp; He spoke the same language I did but pronounced it much differently.&nbsp; “ting” for “thing”, “dat” for “that”, you get the idea (if you have heard any Irish people speak).&nbsp; But it is much more than this simple example.&nbsp; One time when I was traveling to London I took a cab from the airport to the hotel.&nbsp; The cabbie was quite chatty and enthusiastically engaged me and my brother in conversation.&nbsp; Honestly we had no idea what he was saying.&nbsp; I understood only (perhaps) one in ten words.&nbsp; We were completely without understanding.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, in this brief opinion I dont think anyone can possibly know how ancient Latin was pronounced or spoken.&nbsp; I would bet my life that a Third Century BC Roman would likely have no understanding when attempting to converse with a Third Century AD Roman.&nbsp; There are too many generations and ethnicities between who had adopted or used the language for anyone to remotely suggest how any word might have been spoken.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have been told that there have survived some writings related to language and pronunciation (I am not aware of them specifically), but I would again argue that all the things I have outlined above would only give one a snapshot possibility of one specific time in place and culture.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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