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Latin Pronouncing Dictionary
The first scientific dictionary — in print — devoted to the pronunciation of Classical Latin, headword by headword.
The first scientific dictionary — in print — devoted to the pronunciation of Classical Latin, headword by headword.
The dictionary
How was Classical Latin really pronounced? For the first time, a genuine scientific orthoepic dictionary gives a targeted answer: not with general rules, but with canIPA notations for each individual headword. Unlike ordinary dictionaries and online resources on Latin pronunciation, the work presented here boasts a number of exclusive lexicographical features, among them, for example:
The Latin Pronouncing Dictionary arises from the union of careful linguistic analysis and a rigorous philological method, based on an approach that integrates the ancient sources — drawing on the epigraphic corpus, the literary tradition and the grammatical treatises — with the evidence offered by the Romance languages. The work was expressly designed to map the pronuntiatio restituta and to offer — within the limits, of course, of a scientifically rigorous work of reconstruction — a representation as faithful as possible to the phonetic reality of Classical Latin, systematically abstracting from Late Antique and ecclesiastical developments. The volume opens with an extensive introductory apparatus organised on several levels: the general criteria for classification and phono-articulatory description; the genesis and spread of the Latin alphabetic script; and a careful critical discussion of the main interpretive disagreements on crucial questions of Latin phonetics and phonology.
A sample entry
Each entry is the object of a historical-etymological and philological investigation. The dictionary uses no automatic formulas: every term has its own dedicated research and is analysed specifically in order to reconstruct its pronunciation as accurately as possible. Every transcription provided is the outcome of targeted critical scrutiny, an argued reconstruction, not the generalised output of an algorithm.
Illustrative example — the full entry, with its apparatus of sources and notes, is in the volume.
Unlike websites and pronunciation apps that generate automatic transcriptions, the Latin Pronouncing Dictionary is not available online: it is a traditional printed volume, available in paperback, conceived as a printed reference work to keep on your desk. Browse a preview excerpt in PDF to get an idea of the method and layout before buying it.
Why it is different
Latin grammarians and epigraphic inscriptions, read as direct testimony of the pronunciation of the time.
The Romance languages as living evidence: what Latin became reveals how it was pronounced.
Not general rules applied mechanically, but an argued decision for every single word in the dictionary.
The author
Linguist and phonologist, he works on general phonology and on the phonology–phonetics interface, with particular attention to the phonology and phonetics of the Western classical languages.