歌词
Latin consonants had essentially the same sounds as the English consonants with the following exceptions:
bs and bt were pronounced ps and pt: (urbs, obtineō)
otherwise Latin b had the same sound as our English letter b : bibēbant.
Latin c (English c) was always hard as in can
never soft as in city: cum, cīvis, facilis.
g was always hard as in get
never soft as in gem: glōria, gerō
When it appeared before n, the letter g represented a nasalized ng sound as in hangnail: magnus.
h was a breathing sound, as in English, only less harshly pronounced: hic, haec.
i usually functioned as a consonant with the sound of y as in yes when used before a vowel at the beginning of a word: iūstus
Between two vowels within a word i served in double capacity
as the vowel i forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel
and as the consonant like English y: reiectus ( = rei yectus) maior ( = mai yor), cuius ( = cui yus.)
Otherwise it was usually a vowel.
Consonantal i regularly appears in English derivatives as a j
a letter added to the alphabet in the Middle Ages; hence maior = major, Iūlius = Julius.
m usually had the sound it has in English, pronounced with the lips closed: monet.
There is some evidence, however, that in at least certain instances final m, that is, m at the end of a word, following a vowel,
was pronounced with the lips open, producing a nasalization of the preceding vowel: tum, etiam.
q, as in English, is always followed by consonantal u
the combination having the sound kw: quid, quoque.
r was trilled; the Romans called it the littera canīna
because its sound suggested the snarling of a dog: Rōma, cūrāre.
s was always voiceless as in see, never voiced as in our word ease: sed, posuissēs, mīsistis.
t always had the sound of t as in tired, never of sh as in nation or ch as in mention: taciturnitās, nātiōnem, mentiōnem.
v had the sound of our w: vīvō, vīnum.
x had the sound of ks as in axle, not of gz as in exert: mixtum, exerceō.
ch represented Greek chi and had the sound of ckh in block head, not of ch in church: chorus, Archilochus.
ph represented Greek phi and had the sound of ph in uphill, not of ph in our pronunciation of philosophy: philosophia.
th represented Greek theta and had the sound of th in hot house, not of th in thin or the: theatrum.
The Romans quite appropriately pronounced double consonants as two separate consonants
we in our haste usually render them as a single consonant.
For instance, the rr in the Latin word currant sounded something like two r's, in the cur ran
except in Latin, each r was trilled
and the tt in admittent sounded like the two t's in admit ten