Re: Latin Pronunciation

[Dennis <ixohoxi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Gillogly wrote:
> 
> > I have heard stories about an old botany professor at Cornell (long
> > before my short lifetime) who was so scrupulous in his Latin
> > pronunciation that his colleagues and students couldn't understand what
> > he was saying much the time. When speaking of grapes, for example, he
> > would say "wee-tis" (Vitis) and "wee-ta-kee-aye" (Vitaceae)instead of
> > the common but incorrect "vy-tis" and "vy-tay-see-ee".
> 
> For what it's worth, my Latin teacher (UCLA) said "wee-tees" was the
> correct pronunciation for classical Latin.  A Dutch friend was taught
> the same pronunciation in her classical Latin class.  Interestingly,
> she and her husband were both good in Latin but couldn't understand
> each other, since he was strong in church Latin (vee-tah-che-aye)
> and she was nearly fluent in classical (wee-tah-kay-aye).

	I had 2 years of high school Latin, and we learned the
ancient pronunciation, where Vitis is pronounced
"WEE-tees" and Vitaceae is "Wee-tah-KAY-aye".  I never
learned the church pronunciation, which is  like
Italian.

	Here's a classic book on how Latin in the time of the
Roman empire was pronounced:

Vox Latina : A Guide to the Pronunciation of
Classical Latin by William Sidney Allen.  Our Price:
$17.95
Paperback Reprint edition (June 1989) 
Cambridge Univ Pr (Pap Txt); ISBN: 0521379369 ;
Dimensions (in inches): 0.46 x 8.45 x 5.50 

	NOW - I have a question of my own.  One of the
nuisances with Latin is that vowel length is phonemic,
a contrasting distinction, but vowel length is only
marked in textbooks.  What happened in medieval Latin? 
Were vowel lengths forgotten?

Dennis