What Latin Sounded Like - and how we know
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- Опубліковано 11 сер 2016
- Classical Latin went extinct, yet we still know how to pronounce it. Proof!
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Take a trip with me back to Catholic school, then back even further to old Rome. We'll see what Latin pronunciation did - and did NOT - sound like in the mouths of the Romans. Thanks to ancient authors and modern Romance languages, we'll even glimpse a range of evidence for the speech of Caesar and pauper alike!
SERMO VULGARIS ALL DAY LONG, am I right? ;)
~ Credits ~
Art and animation by Josh from NativLang
Music by me: closing piece, soundtrack bits from Thoth's Pill, Hispania guitar.
Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com):
Path of the Goblin King v2, Sneaky Snooper, Chee Zee Jungle, Virtutes Instrumenti, The Show Must Be Go
General image, font, sfx and sources credits:
docs.google.com/document/d/1L...
People in the 41st century: "How do we pronounce this ancient language called English?"
We don't XD
“Yes, there is still much scholarly debate as to how OMG and ROTFLOL were pronounced by native Englians.”
I feel like the English language pronunciation is gonna be based on rap music. 😂😂😂
at least they have videos too see and hear it
Humans won't be around at the 41st century.
No wonder I couldn’t summon the demons. I was pronouncing the words wrong.
Guybrush Threepwood Try Sanskrit
@@murderofcrowss you missed some of the most famous
Riccardo Florio i did, didn’t i. those were just ones that came to mind in the moment. Care to add more? i’m open to suggestions
FluffyKittenss Fugit also means escape, well technically it’s “to make an escape” but but my Latin teacher says it’s ok
Anna Chen or flees, which is also a word for escape lol
I love how he says that the “c” is like “k” but says “Caesar” and not “Kaesar”
@@Cannon530YTOO Yes, the technical pronunciation. Kaiser comes from the Classical Latin Caesar with a hard C.
Because he's speaking to us in English, and Caesar where the c makes an "S" sound is the correct pronunciation in English regardless of how it was pronounced in its original Latin.
It’s so weird that “caesar” is actually kinda like “ky-zar.” Just in general, as someone who learned latin in the 21st century, the Latin language is fuckin weird
@@oswald7597 I know that but it’s funny how he said “Caesar would have said” and then pronounces words right right after he talks about C being a hard C, honestly this comment was a joke Lmaoo
@@goblinsharky he was doing that because he is trying to talk to us in normal English before the example during the example it’s different
I still don’t know what Latin sounded like 😂
Same
Imagine german, thats basically it pronounciation wisd
wingardium leviosaaa?
@@suryaditaufan7285 vingardium lewiosa
ua-cam.com/video/IB93TqfQ26c/v-deo.html
you should have said a few sentences in the real latin.
you should have just sat there and enjoyed the ride
nah. i also watched the video to hear how real latin would have sounded. but instead i got a lesson about why it changed and why we can know how it sounded. not bad, but not what i came here for either. slightly misleading titel.
He actually said some words and sentences in Latin.
j I expected someone talking in Latin not all this extra shit
The guy speaking was trying sooo hard to sound clever that he forgot to give us what we came here for.
why learn latin:
you can roast people in latin and they won't know
edit:thx for the likes
is this a joke or seriously
hey guys just to let y'all know that this is just a joke guys
I probably would. Sigh.
@Elizabeth Anthony context clues leads me to believe that you said something about bovine feces
I studied Latin at Uni level. People used to laugh and ask me why I was studying a dead language. My knowledge of Latin has helped me better understand several languages, and in understanding legal terminology and medical terminology and elsewhere I've found it invaluable. Remember, Carthago delenda est, and here's a little bit of Latin doggerel: semper ubi sub ubi.
Latin plus Finnish, basically makes Tolkien’s Elven language sounds of vowels and consonants. He combined all his favorite languages of Greek, Spanish, Welsh, Finnish, Italian, and Latin to make the basic Elvish sounds of Quenya and Sindarin. Would love a video from you on his language influences and how he created his different languages for his stories.
Tolkien was a scholar of Old English - was leader of a group which read Beowulf out loud in the original.
The Language of the Rohirrim was heavily influenced by " Old English ". He created the Rohirrim as a mixture of Anglosaxons and Goths. And he was fascinated by the gothic Language as well.
Bumping this because I'm a Tolkien fan and would love to see this. Hope he does something on it!
Anor Londo...
Having Finnish as my main language I've always found Italian and Spanish oddly familiar. They have the same resonant "r" pronounciation and the overall rhythm of the language is very similar to Finnish.
Took 4 years of Latin in high school, and….it has been really useful, even years later. Many obscure English words are similar to Latin, and on my SAT one of the vocabulary questions was “impecunious” - which I had not heard in English, but which is straight Lain for “no money,”. Later on medical school tests, same thing,,,,I could recognize answers from the Latin (such as bird-transmitted infections being from Latin for “parrot.”and many more in everyday English (like “farmer” in Latin being “Agricola”/agriculture.
@Itried20takennames In Italy we have two kind of high schools: the more practical ones and the more theoretical ones (I'm simplifying a lot). In the theoretical schools, called "Liceo", it doesen't matter if you are in a scientific school ("liceo scientifico") or in a classical one ("liceo classico"), you must to study latin. In italian lots of words are litterally the same as in latin. "Dog" in latin is "canis" and in italian is "Cane" (it is the same as the ablative form of "canis": "cane"); "Wolf" is "lupus" in latin and "lupo" in italian (again it is the same as its ablative form); In latin "agricola" is "ager" + "colo" ("land" + "to farm") and in italian it's the same "agricoltore"; And so on...
So in the italian lenguage if you don't know the meaning of a word, you can split it in basical latin words and almost always you catch the meaning. I think this applays in all the romance lenguages.
Many English words are similar to Latin essentially because partly coming directly from it, and mostly because deriving from medioeval French, which in turn derived from Latin
@@ascaniosobrero True…the English words are “similar” because they were derived from the Latin terms, but interesting what words were and weren’t adapted. Like English doesn’t call boys “puer,” but will say that someone acting childishly or immaturely is being “puerile.”
I've just realised how much easier pronouncing Latin is when you speak german.
Haha, yes
A theory suggests that the Latins were migrants from northern Europe so the ease of German speakers being able to handle reconstructed Latin's pronunciation is not surprising.
Like every roman langage from latin: Français, Espagnol, Italian
except for the W, it really does seem to
Or when you speak like italian☺
As an Italian I can admit this is so fascinating. As a matter of fact when studying and reading Latin at school, we can use two different pronunciations: the "modern one", based on our current Italian, and the "restituta", which resembles the most to ancient Latin and the way they spoke.
sinceramente non sono capace di vedere Cesare che dice weni widi wiki, suona troppo strano quella w
Church Latin is the same way. It has its own rules, which are closer to Italian phonology than classical Latin, and probably based on how Latin was spoken several centuries after the "classical" Latin era of "wennie weedee weekee". It's not a matter one being right and the other being wrong, but from different eras. Since Church Latin is still actively used, we stick with that style of pronunciation, but no one pretends this is how it was spoken in the days of Julius Caesar.
@@ConceptJunkie You are right, but I would like to make you some clarification. First of all the restituta form is based on studies and hypotheses, we cannot know exactly how Latin was spoken in Rome. It is not 100% certain that classical Latin was actually pronounced like this.
In addition, the restituta would still be the pronunciation spoken only in the city of Rome, because the people spoke vulgar Latin, or depending on the area they spoke a different Latin pronounced with influences of native languages, and it would have been enough to move a few kilometers to hear it pronounced in different way
@@robertogarufi5426 anch’io!
@@robertogarufi5426 what surprises me, as a Spanish speaker, that I can read and understand your post in Italian even though I don't speak Italian.
How the word "sceptic" is pronounced in contemporary English could be a clue. It looks like a relict of classic Latin pronunciation.
Actually, it has greek origins..from the greek word σκεπτικός.
@@JohnKappa But he is right. It came to English from latin.
In Spanish for example the word "escéptico" has no hard /k/ sound. It doesn't have that sound in french either. So the word in English HAS to come from latin directly instead of norman french. It's a nice clue of the classical pronunciation that actually was lost in the romance languages
Reconstructing words from loans in other languages is pretty useful. It's the main way we have of trying to figure out the sound of ancient East Asian languages that used to be written with Chinese characters (With zero phonetic indication)
@@sebastiangudino9377 Ofcourse it came to English from latin, but its not a latin word, is a greek word, that Romans adopted from the ancient Greeks. That was my point.
@@JohnKappa Yep. Greek words actually make like 10% of the entire English vocabulary (Yet they are rarely used in casual conversation. Greek vocabulary is usually scientific and has some degree of prestige)
Interestingly enough, sceptic sounds and writes exactly the same in romanian.
Fascinating! As an advanced Latin student, I've often wondered about the contradiction between the old Latin pronunciation and the way in which the Romance languages are now pronounced. Thank you for sharing! Gratias!
In Italy( and some other country)we study Latin and ancient Greek
In Greece we do the same 😊
In Romania we study LATIN (CLASS VIII) OR THEOLOGY (class 9 - 12 + 4 years by university). LATIN AND GREEK . Or special schools
In America I had to search for a good Latin curriculum to study at home.
I don't think Latin and ancient Greek were part of any obligatory school program where I live, people complain about wasting time learning dead languages and that learning german, french and english since very young is far more important and useful for the vast majority of people.
While I agree with them, I think a little bit of Latin and ancient Greek is nice for those really interested in deep learning about romance languages.
@@PrimiusLovin Ancient greek is not really a dead language. I mean modern greek vocabulary draws 80% of its content from homeric greek, while the grammar and pronounciation are practically the same (and no, the erasmian pronounciation is not a historic pronounciation, in fact by 4th century bc greek was mostly pronounced as it is today).
I was waiting for the narrator to pronounce Caesar as "Kae-sar".
Awe, true to Caesar
Ave, true to Caesar.
Ave Caesare, morituri te salutant (hello i’m italian 🇮🇹)
To think the Germans were pronouncing it right all along!
@@Nicholas3412 greeks also say Kaeseras not Ceasaras
If Quintilian said that “C” “should” always have a hard sound, that obviously implies other people didn’t always say it that way. If everyone always said it that way, there would be no reason for him to even mention it
That's because the language drift from Classical Latin to Vulgar Latin which later shifted to Italian was already in progress. The uneducated commoners were speaking in ways that the educated knew to be wrong but much later became accepted as correct.
He was talking about "Vulgar" latín. The latin that the common, poorly educated people spoke. And of course. The Language that evolve into Romance languages. That's why C can sometimes be an S today. But that was a mistake back in the day. In contrast with correct latin
But it does prove that it's original pronuncuation was of a hard [k] sound, the palatalisation being a new development of Romance languages
Quintilian was against the use of the letter k on written texts. He said It was useless because the hard sound was always present. Someone used the k letter because the sound k Is slightly different before i. That was common in archaic latin but considered superfluous by the time Quintilian wrote. That's why in IPA you have /k/ and /c/ that sound almost the same but /c/ Is a little more palatal because it assimilates the palatality of i. Cure Is transcribed /cju:r/ while come Is transcribed /ka:m/.
@@ghostdog7575 this isn't true, /c/ is more advanced in the mouth than /kʲ/, the actual phoneme in cure /kʲʰɨ̆ɻ/. Come would be /kʰʌm/
Let's make this simple for you: Latin changed over time and so did its sounds. Most important thing to remember? The letter "C" sounded like a "K" and the letter "V" sounded like a "W" until late antiquity and forward, when the "C" became a "CH" and the "V" became a "V." The only other one that maybe matters is that "AE" was pronounced as both and then became "E".
You're welcome.
source? not convinced just from this video; also, almost no latin-based languages & or dialects have a "W" sound (which is different than the "U" sound), nor do they pronounce C as K. I am from Romania, the "W" sound is extremely foreign to my "vulgar latin" ears (The C and K is no problem, but I also didn't expect it). I fail to see how the "W" sound was basically lost in all these languages & dialects. We also have strange changes thougn, like 10, "decem" turning to "zece" (and there are many of these cases where de/di turn into ze/zi in Romanian).
Additionally, it seems quite plausible that "V" could still have still sounded like "V" when it was the first letter, and like "U" (and by "U" I don't mean the English "iu") in any other context.
@@danavram8437 This isn't really a debate. I am a scholar of antiquity, so you can take me as a source when I tell you that the consensus is basically what the video shows. We know that these sounds were first "k" and "w" and then at some point between the 4th and 5th century started to become "ch" and "v" for a number of reasons. For example, when the Greeks tried to render the sound of the "c" they didn't use sigma (σ/ς) but kappa (κ). That is why their rendition of Caesar is Καίσαρ, not Σαίσαρ or Τζαίσαρ (incidentally, this also shows that the Latin "ae" sounded as a long "e" because the alpha+iota diphthong in Greek sounds like a long "e" as well). Conversely, we know that the "v" sounded like a "w" (roughly) because that is how it got rendered in a number of other languages from the time. For example, the Latin name "Verus" does not get rendered in Greek as Βέρους, but as Οὔερους, and the same thing goes for Latin names rendered in other languages; for example, Severus was rendered in Ethiopic (Ge'ez) as ጸዊሮስ (Sewiros) and not as ጸቢሮስ, and we see a very similar pattern in Syriac, where the same name gets rendered as ܣܘܝܪܘܣ (Sewiiruus) in Syriac and not ܣܒܝܪܘܣ (Seviros).
And finally, on your claim that the "w" doesn't exist in Romance languages, it's just not true. The sound is there, even if the "w" is not really used to represent it anymore. I'm Mexican and in Spanish we have a lot of sounds that are, precisely, "w": for example, guajolote, güero, güey, agua, etc. Then some "u"s become "w" depending on where they are in the word; for example, "cuidado" makes the "u" sounds like a "w" so it sounds like "kwidado" and similarly "cuota" sounds like "kwota". Some of these are not Latin-based words (guajolote is a word from Náhuatl, an indigenous language of Mexico), while others are definitely from Latin, like agua, cuidado, and cuota, the first of which, oddly, obviously comes from Latin aqua but where the "g" no longer sounds like "k" but like "w". Others come from Arabic, which has the و for the sound "w". The same can be said for other Romance languages, like Catalan, which has many, many words that include the sound "w" (e.g., a clear Latin-derived word, "consanguinitat" which sounds like "consangwinitat"), same as in Portuguese, Italian, and French. So yes, the "w" existed in Latin as a sound and it hasn't really been lost as such.
Cu placere.
@@danavram8437 And on the "d" turning into "z" in Romanian, that is because the sound of the two letters is made in a very similar way. In fact, in some Arabic dialects the ظ and ض are pronounced the exact same way even though the first was probably pronounced in Classical Arabic as a "z" and the second as a "dh". Think about this: Germans and Russians struggle to say the English "th" sometimes (and "th" is close enough to "d") and so they say "z" instead: "ze postman" "zinner" "zought". And for that, honestly, I think you can thank the Slavic influence on Romanian. Some sibilants in Romanian (like "s" and "z") were sometimes changed to d and vice-versa because of the Old Slavonic influence.
@@ljss6805 Ok, gracias.
"consanguinitat" would sound the same in Romanian as in Catalan (we have two forms: consangvinitate/consanguinitate), but just because you put "ui" to get a sound similar to "w" does not mean that "v"s were pronounced in that way. I was referring strictly to the cases where "V" is the first letter of the word (the other examples support your point though).
Also, when I say the English "W" I move my lips in a different way than to say the latin language sound of "u" or "ui", but I suppose it's a minor thing.
Veni, Vidi, Vici pronounced with "W" just sounds strange to me. Like an Englishman trying to speak Italian, lol.
Finally, about the Greek sigma, isn't that pronounced like a latin S? For example, I would say Caesar (Ch ae z ah r, not K ae z ah r). Not sure if sigma is the correct Greek letter for Ch (like the C in Italian).
@@danavram8437 Yes, the Greek sigma sounds like S, which is why Caesar wasn't spelled with an S or with a "tau-zeta" (which sounds like a "ch"). It was spelled with kappa because the "c" sounded like a k.
If you need examples of contemporary Romance languages starting the word with a "w" sound, I gave some, but take other examples, again, from Spanish, like "guarida" (hideout) from vulgar/non-literary Latin "varida" (cave, place under ground, a place to hide). The "V" of Latin seems never to have changed into a V, but to have remained a "w" in sound (even if not in appearance) in Spanish all the way through. As for "v" in the middle, but again having a "w" sound, I would think of "agüero" (pronounced "awero"), which comes from Latin "avero" (to aver, affirm something as true). Make sense?
Cheers.
Veni, vidi, velcro. I came, I saw, I stuck around.
Grammatically, a word ending in -o generally would be first person present tense. So "I came, I saw, I stick around".
clamo ergo sum: i screamed thus i am
Stay awhile, and listen.
Welp; now I know where "velcro" comes from. lol.
Makes about as much sense as Latin did to me when I took it in high school!
ÁNVS
ANVS
ANNVS
...Anus
Case De Carlo This explains the Spanish 'ano' (anus) and 'año' (year).
Yes, "anus" for the body part is a circumlocution, calling it a ring.
+leonardo h also explains 'annual' in english
Rectum is the fourth principal part of rego, regere, to rule.
Case De Carlo a
This channel rocks so hard. Thanks for so many quality videos!
I just found your channel an I love it. I love you I really wish you were still making video's!!!!! Very good production quality and you're voice is very relaxing....... Hope to see some new videos soon!!!
"Latin pronunciations were so odd"
Me and my celtic heritage: *laughs in gaelic*
Jack Clark oh god 😂
Same.
You're from Wisconsin Jack, you don't speak Gaelic.
@@dallaselgin2636 I mean... I'm not from Germany, and yet I speak some German.
hi hungry I'm rat Gaelic is like Catalan a copy of Spanish but it’s the Portuguese’s copy version
So when are you going to be releasing "We are number one but in Latin"?
Our number system actually comes from the Arabs, so maybe we should have "We are number one but in Arabic."
"We are number I but in Latin"?
Got to it before me. lol
NUMBERS UNUM SUMUS
Maxim Soloviov perhaps
As a lover of language anyways, I fell in love with Latin as a child before I even realized what it was, then as a career horticulturist adult I fell even more when I was able to understand taxonomy and Latin’s relationship with nomenclature of species and plant families! I have mad respect for all we have inherited that is endlessly valuable from ancient peoples…
I enjoyed this video immensely and found myself coming back to it over the years. I studied Latin at school and have always been curious about the correct pronunciation of classical Latin.
This video does not show how Latin sounds.
Actually... yes? You now know how they pronounced C.
(I knew it before I've watched the video, tho.)
Saved me some time
couse is an english guy so he cant pronounce corectly
hadakajime tengu
*course *it's *can't
As in "course you can't write English properly
"because" not course maybe its cause o/a professor ..im not an english kid but i know latin bully-boy
Oh Latin... that language in which even "shit" sounds smart and poetic
Dulciculus = sweet ass ;)
magicmulder finally someone understands me
Actually Modern Romance Languages sound all like shit.
Said no one ever
Shit in Latin is merda. We still use that in Italian.
"sed nemo potuit tangere: merda fuit."
It's always beautiful see someone talking about my Island! Tanti saluti dalla Sardegna
Hello.
I'm Greek.
I did Latin at school many years ago and I must confess that we were reading /c/ always as a /k/, /qu+vowel/ as a /kv+vowel/, /g/ always as /g/ (never as j before /ae/, /e/, /i/).
For example
Caesar as Kezar (long e);
Quoque as kvokve.
Latin helped me learn and understand better Portuguese, Spanish, French..
some rather interesting things have happened to Greek too over the years... I always loved /i/ and /y/ and /iː/ and /yː/ and /ɛː/ and /eː/ and /oi̯/ all merging into /i/
Well it's all Greek to me.
I'm glad that I got to study Latin, in both Junior and Senior high school. It's been useful in everyday life, reading comprehension, spelling, etc. I used my knowledge of Latin to help a girlfriend spell medical terms when she was taking a college secretarial science course. She got her degree, and landed a job as a medical transcriptionist.
I wish Latin was taught in my school but you need like three course of Spanish before you can get to Latin. And Spanish seems like a hard language for me to learn yet I’m not too bad at learning bits of Latin.
AndyGinterBlues - will you please help me with anatomy pronunciation?
Nice! Good for her, and good on you for helping her ❣️
Taking Latin now, I’m In Latin 2 and darn it’s a hard class
@AndyGinterBlues Wow! Every day, she must thank her lucky stars that she had a boyfriend who studied Latin at school. Otherwise, she'd probably be working as a janitor these days.
im even more confused now, than i was 5 min and 58 seconds ago.
How and why. It's crystal clear
Theo Yeh except it's not. It's a decent bit of information thrown at you at once without many examples to properly explain what he's saying
If you had no clue of what was being talked about... I'm sure you are.
Good your thinking that's a start 🤣
He’s absolutely right. The title said what Latin sounded like, I was expecting him to flatly speak Latin not explain the history of it.
Love this! Keep it coming. Peace, Paul
Awesome!!! Love your channel!!! 👍🏼❤️
Ill be at work in 3 hours.....glad i know more about latin at 3 am
soooooo relatable
few min in the video i thought "wtf am i doing here" in the middle of the night
Felix 😂😂😂 i'm watching this video at 4:20 am and the best part is that i'm italian and i studied latin for 5 years😂😂😂 wtf am i doing?!
bullus shittus maximus
Yea like what the .... why am I here at 3????
shit dude you dont have my permission to use my image.
You were one fucked up dude
Hows your sister? :)
SAL-WET-AY-OM-NAYS!
Βυζαντινός here one more language for ya
Greek Tourkish use the latin alphabet
Amazing and very instructive video !
I don't know about other countries, but a lot of things in this video - such as the K sound of C, the long and short sound of vowels and how they should be pronounced etc. - are taught in those Italian high schools where you can study Latin. Nonetheless I didn't know many other things, so thank you for this video! :)
vicipedia
in Hindi, it's spelled विकीपीडीया. Literally "Vikipīdīā, as v and w are the same.
I kind of wish there was a dotted व for wa. I don't speak the language, but I'm indian (well american actually🇺🇲) so I'm trying to learn in case I go to India
I'm also half Hispanic too and I can't speak Spanish. Really wish I spoke more than English, but I'm trying.
Frank B Just do classes. I know I’ve been talking about latin a lot but I would do it. It helps so much with everything. I understand more Spanish Italian among a few and am way better at English because of it and I’m only a latin 1 student. It’s hard at first but it’s really fun and I personally like the challenge.
It. Would be Vikipīdia
How close did the word "Cesar" sound to the German word "Kaiser" which means emperor?
Caesar. You know from the video that it was hard "k" everywhere. The digraph "ae" lost its original pronunciation, but it's not a long "e" (as in long "eh"), but it was originally used to represent the Greek digraph "ai" which is pronounced as two different sounds (analogically, oe was used in place of oi). In that digraph, the second part ("e") is a short "e", and as you know from the video, it was much closer in sound to "i" ("ee", but short).
The "s" is trickier, but again, it's pronounced as "z" in German "Kaiser" as well as Italian "Cesare" or English "Cesar", so we can leave it as "z" sound, especially since it occurs between two vowels, so would have naturally sounded voiced even if "s" was normally voiceless.
The "a" is short, and the "r", again, in the video, it's argued that it wasn't a trill "r", but a short stop.
Wiktionary gives the pronunciation as /ˈkae̯.sar/, so I'd go with that, except two things: that "s", which I think would sound voiced between two vowels when pronounced by a normal person and not a robot, and that "r" in the end which might have been disappearing in Latin (as opposed to Greek "rho").
So yeah, German "Kaiser" is pretty close
@@mk-pn2rk Fallout New Vegas...
@@mk-pn2rk Hail Kaeser!
...and Tsar...
All of these, Kaiser, Cesar, Tsar and Polish Cesarz all stem from the same root.
As was noted in the video, Germanic tribes borrowed words from Latin. Kaiser was one of such words and came to mean the ruler of Rome and eventually of Holy Roman Empire. They didn't change the pronunciation of Kaiser to fit the changes in Romance, and particularly Italic languages.
this video is so appreciated by an ancient archaeology student like me... loving it!
Damn that's cool. So how long do you have to be studying to be considered an ancient student instead of a normal one?
it's not really proven but that's also how I think "Caesar" became "Kaiser"
One thing i wonder it's why the germans say the V like an F
@@rubenambrosini2248 there are two Versions of how to pronounce the V in German: either as F as in "Vogel" or as what an American (I'm intentionally calling it American because the British can sometimes be slightly different, actually more similar to the German F, for example in "live" or "love") V sound, or German W-sound for that matter, would be, as in Vase. For some reasons, us native speakers also rather get more confused by the F-sound than the V/W-sound. For example, if it's about the spelling of an unheard name, the question often is: "schreibt man das mit einem Fahnen-F oder einem Vogel-V", meaning: do you spell (literally: write) this with a Fahnen-F (F as in Fahne, the German word for flag) or with a Vogel-V (V as in Vogel, the German word for bird. Strangely enough there's not really a traditional saying questioning whether it is a V or a W, even though these two letters can also be pronounced the same: Like in "Vase"(vase") and "Wasser" (water). This can be very hard for foreigners and probably is the reason why hardly any non-Geman-speaking person around the world gets the pronouncation of the brand Volkswagen correct: the V therein is pronounced like an F and the w starting the second part of the word, like an English v as in vase.
It is proven. I saw it in some linguistics video which says that all words for 'emperor' in European languages either come from Caesar (Kaiser, Tsar) or Imperator(Emperor)
Edit: Found the video. It's from Xidnaf: ua-cam.com/video/n2O-n0KV1a0/v-deo.html
@Stefan Bruckner it is proven the title of ceaser went from the Roman emperors to Karl the great and then then Otto the first first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation. I don’t know when it became Kaiser but the title is the same and since this day just one non German person was ever crowned as the emperor and that even by force. It was Napoleon Bonaparte a comparable evil as Stalin, Hitler and Mao.
I'm Italian, and I study latin with the "restituta" pronunciation. C has the sound of K, v of w, g of gh and diphthongus remain as they are ( ae isn't read as "e", but as "ae"). Then, I don't understand why you say that "i" is "ee". Maybe the pronunciation is the same, but "i" isn't an "e".
By the way, after all this long sermon, Caesar is pronunced as "Kaesar". With the "ecclesiastica" pronunciation, it would be "Cesar".
I am Chinese and Caesar is exactly pronounced "Kaisa" 凯撒 in Chinese. Ancient Chinese were very serious about translating foreign words into Chinese words. They always picked the Chinese words having the most similar pronunciation to how the foreign words originally sounded. Such examples: Paris - Bali 巴黎, Jesus - Yesu 耶稣, John - Yohan约翰......
Jason Mckenzie
replying to a 2 month old comment just to troll.......
you are really THAT desperate i pity you 😂😂😂😂
Omg now the La Caesar pizza place make sense!!
@ "Mu´han´mo´de", actually :D troll or not, just google translate pls
Another simpler explaination could be that the terms are "copied" from modern German. That would sidestep the thousand-year gap when ancient Chinese were "in contact" with ancient Romans, and the pronunciation shift that would have happened in between.
If you call Paris "Bali" then how do you call Bali?
Really great work!
I appreciate the lessons, and this is my third video, I wish he would read longer verses in the correct pronunciation and not just words or a few phrases
Pompei's people dropped the "H", before the "Ashes" dropped on them.
Too soon?
That's the punishment you get from the gods for dropping the H.
You mean asses then.
Ooof
Verum It’s been thousands of years and somehow it’s still too soon
this is false. the romans and ancients all spoke british english like the movies :P lool
AFGalwayz lol
You're stupid. English wasn't a language yet. Go to Vatican City!
Gav123 I'm stupid? you need to check your sense of sarcasm before calling others stupid.
I have a very bad sense of sarcasm. It's very hard to tell sarcasm in comment. lol
Gav123 lol np
Okay, good. My Latin teacher has been teaching us correctly. Thanks for the video anyway because I always like to learn about history, especially Ancient Rome and Greece.
5 vids in and this some of the coolest interesting shit i ever watched awesome..language tells u a lot about a people and time
So the "Romance" languages are actually Jersey Shore Latin?
Nothing makes sense anymore.
seems about right...
Makes perfect sense to me. Just look at all the different versions there are of english and that only had a century or two to break up before radio and then tv started bringing it back together.
Yes you are right. Carpe (Karp pay) diem. Nuevos ordos seclorum. English (In glish) is still stealing from other languages today. Why do people say "Eanglish?"
Terribilis est!
Latin is a rigid and difficult lenguaje even if you're "fluent", for your every day life you don't use academic terms, thay doesn't means is accetable to go around screaming "Yoooooooooooo Broooooooo"
The title of this video should be changed to, "a lesson on Latin grammar", cuz the title led me to believe I'd get to listen to a phrase or a conversation in Latin.
I agree
It's true that there aren't a lot of examples of actual pronunciation in the video, but the video should not be called a "grammar" lesson, because it is not about grammar, it's about pronunciation.
There was nothing about grammar
grammar
[ˈɡramər]
NOUN
the whole system and structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology (including inflections) and sometimes also phonology and semantics.
synonyms:
syntax · rules of language · morphology · semantics · [more]
a particular analysis of the system and structure of language or of a specific language.
It'd have prevented so many dislikes...
Aha, caught you at the last "Caesar"! :D It was pronounced "Kaisar" in Latin ;)
Thank you for the fun and informative video. I've always wondered about how we know the pronunciations of such ancient languages.
I love your content!
weni, widi, wiki...pedia ?
No, that's from Hawaiian. In their language wiki means quick, and wikiwiki means very quick. The first wiki was called "Wikiwikiweb", and the wiki system was soon suggested to be used for an encyclopedia. So wikipedia means "quick encyclopedia".
Yes 60000%
vici leaks
Fun fact: 'Wikipedia' should be pronounced 'Vikipedia'.
Ahah
Dimm Vargr It’s VViki, though... so “wiki” would be correct, no?
don't you mean vici leacs?
Wasn't "wiki" taken from a Hawaiian word?
What amazing channel!
Thanks for sharing this interesting video my friend!
So I'm learning Latin in Germany and we are supposed to pronounce "c" as "k" which is very natural to me because in most German words "c" is pronounced as "k".
Also, what I find interesting, we pronounce "ae" as the German "ä" (I don't know how to describe it in English, maybe try with Google Translator) but we were told that there are people who pronounce it as "ai" (or "ei", which is basically the same in German). "Ai" sounds like "i" in English.
Now, if you take the name "Caesar", change the "C" for a "K" and the "ae" for an "ai", you end up with "Kaisar". "ar" and "er" at the end of of a word are pronounced similarly in German and "Kaiser" is the German word for emperor.
That means, that if you take "Caesar" and pronounce it in that special way, you'll end up with his position.
EDIT: Ok, nvm, I was just told that the word "Kaiser" directly comes from Julius Caesar so there's nothing special...
Kjoergoe Antonomasia
Kjoergoe it's neat that you figured that out, though
That was exactly what I told my Latin teacher last year omg thank you for being so me 2.0
When I found that out (Caesar is pronounced Kaisar / Kaiser) my mind was blown
Smiuley Yay, there are other me's! \(^o^)/
Kjoergoe Well, the story has even more depth. Back in ancient Rome, every emperor had the name Caesar in his full name. The very first emperor, Augustus, added Caesar's name to his and all the other emperors did so as well. As a consequence, the name Caesar became some kind of title.
In medieval times, there was the Holy Roman Empire (which consisted mostly of german speaking realms). The Holy Roman Empire claimed to be the direct successor of the ancient Roman Empire. Thus, every emperor used the name Caesar as a title (instead of for example "King"). They pronounced Caesar the same way the Romans did but they wrote it in German phonetics, so that it became "Kaiser". And this title has stayed in our culture and vocabulary until present days.
Greetings from Austria^^
I took Latin in Catholic school in the 1960s and we were taught true Latin, not Church Latin. So I was taught "wenee, weedee, weekee", not "venee veedee veechee". Also "Caesar" was not pronounced as "See-zer", it was pronounced "Kaizer", like the German Kaisers. The dipthong ae (as in Caesar) is pronounced as a long i, and the C is hard (= k).
"Kaizer" - in Classical Latin "s" between vowels doesn't become /z/ though
Kaisar
I went to catholic school to so my father and my grand father and we do not pronunced in this way and we are sardinian
our languace is one of the most preserved latin languages
In Vatican Latin is the official language I have attended to old liturgyand I never heard this pronuntiation
Are we going to ignore the “puto” at the start? (Is a bad word in spanish and portuguese)
As for portuguese it depends a lot. In some regions of Brazil "puto" is a guy who's pissed off, while in some other regions it can be a slang for money.
In portugal puto can mean a male kid, "bro" or as the brazilian person said, it can be also being pissed off.
It's contextual, much like many other works.
Puto in the Philippines is a native delicacy...
Are you maybe thinking of puta? Note that in Spanish, if the word ends in an O you're not talking about a woman.
@@BobZed Any of those is considered a bad word. A "puta" is vulgar for a female prostitute, a "puto" is a male one, often used as a slur/vulgar way to refer to gays. In Spanish that is. Portuguese seems to vary as the other comments have pointed out.
Great video! It would be nice to know more.
Your Latin pronunciation is really good. Unlike majority of English speakers.
Why is that? A lot of my Latin speaking friends speak similarly, and wye Americans (and a few Canadians).
+Ianus we're*
***** I don't understand your question. Are you asking me, why majority of English speakers aren't good at pronunciation of Latin?
+Martin Šriber Right, I'm asking why you think that.
***** I don't think that. I hear that. English speakers mostly suck at pronunciation of any language other than English. It's because most of them doesn't know any other language and English has rather weird spelling.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I was tricked by the title
And so were you
@@haaa6236 Roses are red
Violets are blue
I did enjoy it
But my words were true
@@haaa6236 Roses are red
Violets are blue
Worry not my friend
It's nice talking to you
No, I got pretty much what I expected out of this
it was entertaining to watch anywy)
Latin as a language
is as dead as dead can be.
It killed the ancient Romans
and now it is killing me.
Thanks for this fantastic analysis. I'm italian and I studied Latin at high school, like all of those who went to "liceo", and I always wondered why they always thought me to pronounce Latin like it was Italian. Now I know they were most likely wrong (well, for the classic Latin part at least).
If you think about it, there's a reason that w is vv instead of uu. And "multum" is always spelled like "mvltvm." My mom's Aunt Tillie (who was Lithuanian) used to say, "Eat your Wegetables!" The "vuh" sound (v), "uwh" sound (u), "yuh" sound (y), and "wuh" sound (w) are not that far off if you think about it. It all goes back to the ancient Phoenecian "Y" or waw. Which kind of sounded like "uwvh". All those noises. All at once.
The great vowel shift really threw English spelling into a tizzy.
A 1:1 match would require 45 or 46 letters in English. Good luck.
+Evi1M4chine There'd be a conflict between British English and American English. The vowels are pronounced very differently. Even if they didn't use the same system, I guarantee you British spelling would be virtually unintelligible to an American speaker.
+WJohnM I'm all for adding some new letters to English. Let's throw in a Θ for our words like Think and a Ð for our words like There. Θink and Ðere. English made easy.
Atlas Broadshoulder
You are brilliant!
Caleb Hubbell
It's scary, but it has to be done.
In the game "Assassin's Creed Origins", the Roman soldiers talk Latin and it sounds like Italian regarding the accent. That was quite interesting!
I don't know if you've seen polyMATHY's video on AC Origins, but he speaks Latin really well and has done a video analysing AC Origins, it's quite interesting
I really hate when that happens, or ancient Greek with a latin accent (not in the game, but another yt video)
Latin pronouncing the /c/ as [k] is also supported by the fact that the German "Kaiser" (emperor) and the Dutch "keizer" (emperor) both come from the Latin "Caesar" (emperor), which - if c = k - would be pronounced similarly to both.
Also Muslims have "Kayzer" means emperor, Mehmed the Conqueror calls himself "Kayzer-i Rum" in 15th century which means Roman Emperor.
I read somewhere that Portuguese from Brazil, specifically, is the living language most similar to ancient Latin phonetically. This is funny because in certan European countries, even in Spain, a lot of people confuse spoken Portuguese from Brazil with Russian!
I started this video in 2016 and finished in 2017
What's the future like?
Happy new Year!
Party animal.
3 months ago?
Dhya Eddine El Bahri
WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
anus, annus and aanus XD
hahaha I saw that too.
lol
High five to you at 1:06. I still have my copy of "Das Dalmatische" here somewhere, unread because I couldn't find Bartoli's book in the original Italian. You might note my avatar as to why this particular language was of interest to me in grad school.
The Appendix Probi comes up whenever I have a chat with one of the youngsters that, when referring to plurals, it's "houses not house's." Time will tell as to whether we lose the battle that Probus lost.
2:17 Why do I hear the same wrong thing in all three versions?
I'm trying, I'm really trying. but I cannot for the life of me fathom what you're saying
Jacob Pohlabel what is so hard about it?
Gudwell I think it's how the narrator is talking. It doesn't sound very natural, like the intonation is all over the place? not sure either tbh
There was some awful part of me that was really hoping to see someone get a full script of this video and replace every "C" with a "K". 🙂
I guess you need some basic grasp at linguistics before you can understand it fully.
I'm brazilian, english is not even my native language and I could fully understand everything he said.
Jacob Pohlabel: It helps if you took Latin in high school.
Wouldn't it vary just like English pronunciation varies from the hundreds of accents?
Uhohhotdog Gaming You have the perfect dp for that comment xD
duh?
Oh, definitely-especially at the height of the Roman Empire, which stretched over thousands of miles and many different nations with their own languages. In fact, I bet there was even an accent difference between rich and poor Romans within the city of Rome itself.
He's talking specifically about proper Latin, genius, not Vulgar Latin.
Big Bad Wolf there is no proper way to say things. It's what society says it is. If we all agree "big bad wolf" is pronounced " asshole" then that's what it is.
As a native Turkish speaker the way you pronounced "i" felt like i'm at home.
What is native turkish ?
why English says EYE on "I"
Loved it, thanks
I have the feeling, that its easier to learn Latin if you dont speak english. (like me as german)
If you can already speak German, then any language is cake!
Including the asian and slavic ones?
emilko62
No language trolls you with words the length of your arm
+Jaan Joosep Puusaag You saying that it has a word longer than this?
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
Gross!
But what about that Welsh place...?
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch(go ahead and count it, i would really like to know ;)
Although it must seem like the same if you do not understand it.
i was expecting 5 mins of garbled gibberish
What I love as well about how it changed is that for hundreds of years of Roman latin in the late empire it sounded like church latin, with chuhs and skuhs instead of kuhs and they were dropping their noun endings like -um and -us. Emperor Theodorus would be hard for Augustus to understand, and hard for Justinian too.
Thanks for sharing your information and resources!
May I ask you, what presentation program have you used to make this presentation ?
So how did the original Valyrians pronounce Valar Morghulis?
Judging by some of the comments here, it was probably pronounced "You shithead, you don't know a fucking thing."
+WJohnM Is that the vulgar version of "You know nothing, John Snow"?
+antred11 10/10
Bunga , bunga
I think it's Malar Vorghulis
I'm sorry, but the thing that will stick with my mind is the "anus anus anus" part D:
There's still a fine line in Italian today. "Ano" is anus, and "anno" is year. If you're trying to say "I'm 20" which is "Ho venti anni" but you don't pronounce both "n" sounds, then you're saying that you have twenty anuses.
Trav Gaal
That's pretty funny. Thanks ;)
Still hilarious in Italian... anni/ani.
If it helps you to remember the same pronounced word means "ring," "old lady," or "year," depending on the spelling, then it's fair game.
Easy. Hold the double -N sound for just a fraction of a second longer.
GOOD STUFF DUDE
Now it makes sense how the german word for king (kaiser) is writen and pronounced, it's just how caesar was originally pronounced.
But isnt Ceasar then Kaesar, which resembles some languages word for emperor (ie. german "Kaiser" or finnish "Keisari")?
Yes, those languages pronounce it more like Classical Latin!
Eetu Purtonen Caesar* :)
It´s funny because the german word Kaiser is from Caesar but we actually pronounce him " Zäsar " ( german pronunciation ) or " Tsaesur " ( English pronunciation. My latin teachers all made it differently. some spoke a C as a K and some as a Ts.
Actually, when SPQR started to fall apart, there were all so many changes in poetry language. They would for example pronounce Caesar Cezar, not Keysaar
also the Russian, Czar.
What this video sounds like to laymen like me: ""If you have 4 pencils and I have 7 apples, how many pancakes would fit on the roof? Purple, because aliens don't wear hats."
Hahahahaha
Random funny
@ShadeyBladey Please do! I can't take credit for it though, it comes from a joke about a math word problem!
Will use, thank you Lilith
I thought your comment was funny because pizza on my table topper microwave isn’t juicy and pixelated freezer has my frosty trombone.
I didn't quite expect to come across my Latin teacher's name (Lucie Pultrová) while procrastinating with this randomly selected video. I interpret this as a warning from the gods to make me get the hell back to studying.
My mother had 6 years of Latin and I've only had one course, but you are right with your c and v.
Weri Konwincing
Weri konwinking
Richard Kralick yes, sorry my grammar is bad.. ;)
;) I'll let it go this time.....
Chekov?
processing ... ... ... processing... ... ... program not responding ... ... ... Close brain now.
catrionaakacat leave. Please.
please stay
Late in two,bin out writes?
'Close brain now.'... Not Responding... Self Destruct Sequence Initiated.
Does your user name start with a C sound or a K sound? Thanks John With a J sound.
I agree with the previous comment: it would have been great to hear you speak Latin.
I can tell you sound amazing.
I friggin' LOVE these
So I guess the Latin that Caesars legion were speaking was perfect pronunciation after all. "Caesar" being pronounced "kaesar" now makes sense.
D. Austin Vaughan That thought had just arose into my mind seconds before reading this. What a coincidence.
It's also re validated by looking what the Germans pre WWII called their emperor..Kaiser
Bill.
And here I had been laughing every time someone in the game pronounced it that way. Partway through this video, I recalled the game and a small lightbulb turned on.
There are also different versions of Latin. Since it was the official language of the Roman Empire there are likely many different ways to say these words. Like you would with an accent. So pronouncing a word one way may sound incorrect by someone else from a different part of the world. People get hung up on the exact pronounciation or historical pronounciation of a word. Languages are not mathmatics. They are far more fluid and ever changing.
FilmAcolyteReturns This comment is beautiful lol.
He makes the exact point you do at the end, but with far less words.
Fewer.
hahaha i see what you did there, good sir
so when the witches pronounce an incantation with the wrong pronunciation, they got undesired effects. Instead of transforming into a cat, they transform into a mouse and then were eaten by their cat....heheheheheh
Thank you 🙏 now I know why my name (Carina) is pronounced with K in the beginning and why for example lemon and concrete (Citron, cement) in Swedish is pronounced with S . I had no idea that it was from latin language.
Carina in Italian means "pretty", "nice". You are carina in name and in fact. :)
Man!!! I thought you had an ancient recordings of them talking lol
We always had to pronounce things the correct way in Latin class. Caesar became Kaisar, curriculum vitae became curriculum witai, etcetera (etketera?)
qwertyuiopzxcfgh How does Pater patriae become?
Angel Of Salvation Pater Patreeai. I don't really know how to write the a, it's pronounced like it is in the Italian "amore", I don't think there is an English word that pronounces it in the same way.
qwertyuiopzxcfgh As far as i know Ae it's pronounced e "Pater Pàtrie" like Caesar it's "Cesar
Angel Of Salvation Yes, that is the modern pronounciation, which the Catholic Church uses. The one I use is how the ancient Romans used to speak.
Yes, the pronounce Kaisar ( or Ka-esar) is called "RESTITVTA". In Italian schools we use to speak latin using the "Ecclesiastica" pronounce, which is used in Vatican.
So this explains why the Germans say Kaiser rather than how we say Caesar...
I read those both the same...
Must be my German heritage.
it sound much different :) like a totally different word...
I live in Germany and my Latin teacher always pronounced 'Caesar' something like "Kasahr", the first "a" pronounced like you would regulary pronounce an 'a' in English. In difference to "Kaiser" being pronounced like you probably would in English mostly.
In short, if you know German, she pronounced Caesar like "Käsar".
Most English speakers pronounce "Caesar" as "see-zerr."
Also the Greeks transliterated Caesar as kaisar.
As a young teen in the late 1960s I had the unique experience of witnessing a Catholic funeral service done in Latin.
The deceased elderly man was a strong Catholic and a friend of my dad. When my dad went to the funeral service, he dragged me along; but I became fascinated about the Priest speaking exclusively in Latin; not only at the Church service, but also at the burial plot, too.
Even in my youth I could tell the Priest was struggling with the Latin language, as the service was a long formal one at the Church. After the service, at a social gathering, the same Priest embarrassingly admitted that he may have flubbed it in a place or two. My dad put the Priest's mind at ease saying it was doubtful anyone detected it.
That is pretty much how I learned to speak Latin in Switzerland. According to my teacher, an absolute Latin nerd, that was the only correct pronunciation. Apparently, he was right. Good to know.
and as an Italian, who was forced to study latin for quite a few years, i must say...y'all got lucky, it has been (at least for me) one of the hardest tasks i ever had to do.
My Getaway I had two years of mandatory Latin and was very happy when it was over. Still have a booklet full of proverbia latina at home though.
unFayemous mind if I ask where are you from?
Mia P not at all! I'm Swiss.
unFayemous Oh that's interesting. I guess most of central European countries have mandatory Latin then. I'm glad I'm not suffering alone hahah
Mia P it's not mandatory for everyone, only if you do 6 years of grammar school, you have to take latin for the first 2 years. You can also decide to switch to ancient greek after that for the next 4 years. 💁 it's a complicated system but as everyone knows, there's nothing the Swiss love more than complicated bureaucracy 🙄😂😂