Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin 2nd Edition by W. Sidney Allen (PDF)

Description

This is a reissue in paperback of the second edition of Professor Allen’s highly successful book on the pronunciation of Latin in Rome in the Golden Age. In the second edition the text of the first edition is reprinted virtually unchanged but is followed by a section of supplementary notes that deal with subsequent developments in the subject. The author also added an appendix on the names of the letters of the Latin alphabet and a select bibliography.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐This book, by an enviably trained phonetician with an enviable classical background to boot, is the most recent, complete and accurate description available of what classical Latin sounded like. Though I imagine a reader not trained in phonetics and phonology might have a hard time following it, this obstacle is mitigated by the inclusion of a glossary explaining technical terminology.I do take issues with certain things though.It seems a shame to me that the loss of distinction between T and D in word-final position was not mentioned. (c.f. Quintilian “ut ‘ad’ cum esset præpositio, ‘d’ litteram, cum autem coniuctio, ‘t’ acciperet.”)On the issue of short I after QV, Allen leaves the reader with a somewhat confusing impression. On the one hand, he relies on grammarians such as Priscian to show that the I in such words as “quis” and “vir” had a more rounded quality. On the other, he quotes Priscian to the effect that the QV before front vowels (like “I”) had a fronted secondary articulation. One is left wondering whether to front the labial consonant, round the front vowel, or both in words like “quis.” Some commentary on this point would have been in order.On two points, Allen makes some assumptions which, to me, seem unjustified:In a section on the voiceless plosives P, T, K on pages 12-13, Allen is quite correct in advising that English-speakers not attempt to replace their aspirated stops with unaspirated ones. But to assume that Latin voiceless stops may have had aspirated allophones is quite another matter. It is, naturally, impossible to deny that they did, but all available evidence indicates that they did not (at least, not in the mouth of a native speaker) until the second century (where they were marked with the familiar digraphs ch, th, ph already known from greek borrowings.) Allen’s historical evidence (based largely on the voicing of early borrowings such as “Burrus” for greek “Pyrrhus”) is not sufficient to indicate otherwise. Most of the borrowings mentioned are not in fact Greek borrowings but non-indo-european words borrowed independently into Greek and Latin from a third source. This third source may have had voiced and voiceless stops in different dialects, which is a much more plausible explanation.In the section on word-final M on pages 30-31, Allen mentions the assumed phenomenon of nasalization. However, the fact that word-final M is not counted in scansion does have *other* plausible explanations, most notably the theory that it represented a voiceless bilabial approximant. The lack of word-final F coupled with the metrical behavior of H makes this theory, at the very least, worth mentioning.Other than the above shortcomings, it is a beautifully researched book written in a kind of lucid prose which, ironically enough, is rare among modern linguists.

⭐This book is an excellent resource for those who want to learn about the evidence we have for the reconstructed Classical Pronunciation of Latin. It is incredibly thorough, including evidence from inscriptions, transliterations, derivatives, and statements by grammarians.However, while I would recommend this book for any Latin teacher, I am more hesitant about recommending it to a student. This is not a book to turn to if you want to learn the reconstructed Classical Pronunciation; its primary use is providing the evidence and providing examples of pronunciation errors to avoid. If you want a place to start learning how to pronounce Latin, I’d recommend going to the Wheelock’s site, which has audio files with the pronunciation of every letter. I’d say Vox Latina is suitable for students with a year or two of Latin under their belts, but not for Latin I students. (Additionally, there is quite a bit of untranslated Latin, and even a little untranslated French) I highly recommend it for students who are about to start reading poetry–it will help demystify elision and some of the weirder scansion rules.While the book was excellent, the Kindle version leaves much to be desired. There are numerous transcription errors, some of which make the book hard to follow, as they tend to occur more frequently in non-English words. Amazon needs to look into the transcription and correct these errors. While I like the convenience of a digital copy, I strongly recommend the physical copy until these errors are corrected.

⭐It was exactly as described.

⭐The source for understanding what we know concerning the pronunciation of classical Latin. An aid to teaching the meters of poetry as well as the conversations of well-spoken Romans.

⭐Foundation in linguistics essential

⭐I bought this book in order to learn how to correctly pronounce some Latin words that commonly appear in Math and Science texts. As a Brazilian, I’m a native speaker of a romance language (Portuguese) that is in great part a development of Vulgar Latin, so in principle it would be easier for me to learn reconstructed pronounciation. I have some background on Linguistics, though I’ve never had Latin classes. I could in fact learn something from this book, but it failed to give me the confidence in latin pronounciation I had expected.At first, Allen refrained from using International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in transcribing the sounds; instead he choosed to make analogies with (Britain) English dialects unknown to me (and probably to anyone not born in UK). He also uses some phonetic notations that are not standard IPA, and that he does not explain in the Phonetic Introduction. Any book aimed to describe a language in academic rigor (and this one definitly is such a book) should use IPA mainly, if not exclusively.The author also presupposes that his readers know Latin pretty well, and so he doesn’t bother in translating the several Latin citations he makes in the text to support his conclusions. For the ones who are not fluent in the language, it’s nearly impossible to follow the reasoning in some passages. Alas, the reader must ideally not only know Latin beforehand, but also be well versed (no pun intended) in Latin Poetry to understand some critical arguments.The majority of words and phrases in Latin presented in the book don’t have any diacritics to indicate the long vowels or the stressed ones, so they don’t even serve to oral practice by the reader. (Only the words cited as examples in ‘Vowel Length’ chapter have macrons, and the ones in the ‘Accent’ chapter have accents.) Again, the author presupposes the reader already know beforehand, or is able to discover for him(her)self, where these crucial vowels are in each word. (And no, the explanations in that two chapters are not enough to prepare the reader to make his own way through the corpus.) But someone who already had such a knowledge wouldn’t need to buy a book to describe Latin pronounciation…I also expected more arguments derived from comparative analysis of Romance Languages. Allen does present some evidences of this kind, but parcimoniously (in contrast to abundant, but somewhat dubious, evidences from ancient authors), and mainly taken from French (that is not properly a Romance Language, but in fact a Romance-Germanic creóle).Oh, and the footnotes and endnotes throughout the book are a mess.In short, this definitely is not the book for someone intending to *learn* how to pronounce Classical Latin. It is to someone who *already know* how to do it, and just want to know why it is done that way.

⭐This is a great piece of scholarship, clear and concise, endlessly fascinating, throwing up many unexpected surprises. For example, the combination “qu”, rather than like an English biconsonantal “kw” sound, almost certainly still represented the same sound as the original Indo-European single labio-velar consonant from whence it came, that is to say, a “k” sound pronounced with rounded lips as for a “w”; the pairing “gn” was most likely pronounced as velar nasal + dental nasal, much like the “ngn” combination of English “hangnail”.There are no real linguistic prerequisites required of the reader, everything being explained in plain language, so in this sense it is quite accessible. The evidence presented is thorough, and Allen is never dogmatic, supplying evidence to the contrary where it exists. There are plenty of quotes from Latin grammarians in support of certain pronunciations – these are by nature only accessible to people with excellent Latin (not me, it has to be said), but doesn’t detract much from the usability of this book even for beginners.This is an essential book for every student of Latin; even if we are never going to take on board every suggestion herein for our modern day pronunciation, at least we have a much deeper knowledge of the language as a result. As Allen notes, for many of us it may be a case of “video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor” – I see a better way and I approve, but I follow the worse.

⭐I was advised by a language expert on the subject of ancient Latin, regarding pronunciation. It was described as hard going and the sentences in the opening chapters would suggest that is the case. However, it’s a book that you can dip in and out of as well as reflect on.

⭐Excellent handbook, very clearly written. It covers only classical Latin, so don’t expect a discussion of the historic evolution of its pronunciation, although references are made, when appropriate to archaic Latin and an appendix concernes the pronunce of Latin in England.

⭐Prodotto consegnato con dorso danneggiato. Imballo inidoneo per trasporto libri.

⭐

⭐C’est une référence très intéressante et complète. Il décrit toute la prononciation latin et justifie ses assertions, et rend compte des débats sur certaines question. C’est normalement destiné à des étudiants anglais en langues anciennes mais est très accessible à un public non académique. D’autant que très peu de gens en France appliquent la véritable prononciation restituée du latin.

⭐

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