What Latin Sounded Like - and how we know

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.

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:

[cary]

No wonder I couldn’t summon the demons. I was pronouncing the words wrong.

[freerider.]

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.

[adt_terrarian]

People in the 41st century: "How do we pronounce this ancient language called English?"

[ElvenWisdom]

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.

[alessandromalfa]

In Italy( and some other country)we study Latin and ancient Greek

[aspect]

why learn latin:

you can roast people in latin and they won't know

edit:thx for the likes

[KatzeArtemis]

you should have said a few sentences in the real latin.

[goblinsharky]

I love how he says that the “c” is like “k” but says “Caesar” and not “Kaesar”

[robertjarman]

Veni, vidi, velcro. I came, I saw, I stuck around.

[asimplejules]

I've just realised how much easier pronouncing Latin is when you speak german.

[andyginterblues]

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.

[Itriedtakennames]

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.

[OhBenWhyKenobi]

I was waiting for the narrator to pronounce Caesar as "Kae-sar".

[jxy_vbn]

"Latin pronunciations were so odd"
Me and my celtic heritage: *laughs in gaelic*

[mateuszczesawjanpaweburcza]

Oh Latin... that language in which even "shit" sounds smart and poetic

[cherishquinnington]

I still don’t know what Latin sounded like 😂

[SomeoneStoleMyHandle]

So when are you going to be releasing "We are number one but in Latin"?

[nickNcar]

Ill be at work in 3 i know more about latin at 3 am

[longbow]

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 -

[MarlenePagé-de]

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!