Latin pronunciation

[Steven Schaufele]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> convinced unquestioningly that whereas the aspirates [phi] and [theta]
> were fricatives, [chi] was a stop identical to [kappa]. When I got to
> Germany, i discovered I had been wrongly taught: in fact, [phi] and
> [chi] were fricatives, and [theta] was a stop identical to [tau]!
 
This, in turn, reminds me of my experience in learning Biblical Hebrew
from a Rabbi whose native language was German.  In his version, the oral
stops represented by the letters `beth', `kaph', and `pe' could be
spirantized to produce the phones /v/, /x/, and /f/ respectively, but
the oral stops represented by the letters `gimel', `daleth', and `taw'
couldn't be similarly spirantized (note that he also pronounced the
letter `waw' exactly like the spirantized version of beth: /v/).  Being
a man of intelligence and great learning as well as great honesty, he
admitted that, ideally, all six oral stops should be subject to
spirantization, and that his inability to follow through on this was due
entirely to his German-speaking roots.  But in fact, anything deviating
from this arch-Aschkenazic pronunciation was not acceptable in class!
 
Best,
Steven
--
Steven Schaufele, Ph.D., Asst. Prof. of Linguistics, English Department
 
Soochow University, Waishuanghsi Campus, Taipei 11102, Taiwan, ROC
 
(886)(02)2881-9471 ext. 6504     fcosw5 at mbm1.scu.edu.tw
 
http://www.prairienet.org/~fcosws/homepage.html
 
 
 
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