🚀 go-pugleaf

Anders Blehr wrote:
> 
> Joe Bernstein wrote:
> 
> > >What sort of "r" is used?
> > >And is it true that the "gn" is pronounced like in French? Or is it
> > >separate "g" and "n" sounds?
> > >Is "y" pronounced like the French "u"?
> >
> > My guesses would be 1) no guess (but probably not the English retroflex
> > "r"!), 2) separate sounds, 3) yes.  I could *very* easily be wrong here
> > though and would appreciate help.
> 
> Re 3: "y" is Greek for "i" and in Latin occurs only in Greek loan words,
> so I would assume the pronunciation to be identical to that of "i".

Actually,

(1)The "r" was almost certainly trilled, though I am not sure whether that
was uvular or Spanish-like.  

(2)Latin was almost perfectly phonetic.  Yes, the "g" and "n" were separate 
sounds, just as in English "ignorant".

(3)Greek upsilon (used as "y" in Latin) was pronounced very much like French
"u" as in "tu" or as "�" as in German "�ber"; and yes it was used almost exclusively
in Greek loan words.  (It may have been pronounced that way only by the Greek-
educated upperclass.  The lower class may indeed have changed it, but since 
one learns the language almost exclusively of the upperclass, I think it best to try to
approximate their speech patterns).


Tom
-- 
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Tom Wier
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

Tomaso.Houston@worldnet.att.net
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