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Just Chat! / Re: The 'V' Sound In Ancient Latin.
« on: 13/04/2024 13:56:44 »
I was taught Latin with the then-fashionable "W" pronunciation, which certainly made the spoken language mellifluous, but I can't see any connection with modern Italian or French - I haven't eaten wolauwonts in Wenice, for instance.
But the letters U and W do not appear in Roman script, and it's almost certain that both short and long U sounds were part of the spoken language, all represented by V, so anyone's guess is as good as any other.
Not that Latin is unique in this respect. The motor vehicle that anglophones call a "vee doubleyou" is made in a factory known as "fah vey" to its workers, and the spelling of Lowland Scots words generally represents the sound made by a Scot if they are pronounced as written, by an Englishman.
But the letters U and W do not appear in Roman script, and it's almost certain that both short and long U sounds were part of the spoken language, all represented by V, so anyone's guess is as good as any other.
Not that Latin is unique in this respect. The motor vehicle that anglophones call a "vee doubleyou" is made in a factory known as "fah vey" to its workers, and the spelling of Lowland Scots words generally represents the sound made by a Scot if they are pronounced as written, by an Englishman.