THE ROMAN PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN WHY WE USE IT AND HOW TO USE IT BY
FRANCES E. LORD PROFESSOR OF LATIN IN WELLESLEY COLLEGE BOSTON, U.S.A.

INTRODUCTION

The argument brought against the 'Roman pronunciation' of Latin is
twofold: the impossibility of perfect theoretical knowledge, and the
difficulty of practical attainment.

If to know the main features of the classic pronunciation of Latin were
impossible, then our obvious course would be to refuse the attempt; to
regard the language as in reality dead, and to make no pretence of
reading it. This is in fact what the English scholars generally do. But
if we may know substantially the sounds of the tongue in which Cicero
spoke and Horace sung, shall we give up the delights of the melody and
the rhythm and content ourselves with the thought form? Poetry
especially does not exist apart from sound; sense alone will not
constitute it, nor even sense and form without sound.

But if it is true that the task of practical acquisition is, if not
impossible, extremely difficult, 'the work of a lifetime,' as the
objectors say, do the results justify the expenditure of time and labor?

The position of the English-speaking peoples is not the same in this as
that of Europeans. Europeans have not the same necessity to urge them to
the 'Roman pronunciation.' Their own languages represent the Latin more
or less adequately, in vowel sounds, in accent, and even, to some
extent, in quantity; so that with them, all is not lost if they
translate the sounds into their own tongues; while with us, nothing is
left--sound, accent, quantity, all is gone; none of these is reproduced,