Latin pronunciation in EB

**Shadow_LT** · 02-02-2010, 16:01

I was taught that in Latin language "c" in front of "e" and "i" is pronounced as "c " and in front of "a" , "o" and "u" as "k". But, why principes in EB pronounce their name with "k", instead of "c" ? Is it a mistake or some sort of exception ?

**SwissBarbar** · 02-02-2010, 16:26

Because the ancient Principes did not speak modern Latin, as you were taught.

**abou** · 02-02-2010, 16:36

Originally Posted by Shadow_LT

I was taught that in Latin language "c" in front of "e" and "i" is pronounced as "c " and in front of "a" , "o" and "u" as "k". But, why principes in EB pronounce their name with "k", instead of "c" ? Is it a mistake or some sort of exception ?

In Classical Latin, C was pronounced with the hard pronunciation similar to K. Because of the redundancy, K was dropped from the alphabet except in the cases of specific words such as kalends. The pronunciation of C seems to have changed sometime before Vulgate Latin and perhaps during the late empire.

**anubis88** · 02-02-2010, 17:07

Mini question. The ligurians say Ligurii( they pronounce the AE as II, while the words are obviusly ae, so the should pronounce AE as in AI...
Or of course my hearing is impared, and they say what they should, but i don't notice the destinction

**ziegenpeter** · 02-02-2010, 17:47

I don't get you. There is no "ae" in Ligurii... But its fascinating how modern Latin classes all around the world seem to misteach latin pronounciation. It took quite some time to find out, that "c" is always "k" and "ae" is "a-i" ,well if pronounced by pretty much any european language speaker other than an english speaker. Easiest exampel: (lat.) Caesar>(germ.) Kaiser. And "u" and "v" is the same pronounced a bit like the english "w" if before vowels.

**anubis88** · 02-02-2010, 18:13

the Gaemile Liguriae clearly have ae at the end

**ziegenpeter** · 02-02-2010, 18:47

Sorry, misunderstanding.

**Shadow_LT** · 02-02-2010, 18:48

Thanks for clearing that up. After searching my Latin textbook I found a short note which said that romans until fall of empire always pronounced "c" as "k".

**Tiberius Gracchus** · 02-02-2010, 22:37

Originally Posted by anubis88

Mini question. The ligurians say Ligurii( they pronounce the AE as II, while the words are obviusly ae, so the should pronounce AE as in AI...
Or of course my hearing is impared, and they say what they should, but i don't notice the destinction

Or it's because they speak ligurian and not latin ;-).

**jirisys** · 02-04-2010, 02:06

Originally Posted by Tiberius Gracchus

Or it's because they speak ligurian and not latin ;-).

Actually i hear Caegmail~e Ligurie (rough pronuntiation) when they speak, not ii

**gamegeek2** · 02-04-2010, 05:26

In Classical Latin, "ae" makes the sound that "ai" does in Greek and Spanish, among other languages, or "ei" in German.

**DionCaesar** · 02-02-2010, 17:47

Originally Posted by Shadow_LT

I was taught that in Latin language "c" in front of "e" and "i" is pronounced as "c " and in front of "a" , "o" and "u" as "k". But, why principes in EB pronounce their name with "k", instead of "c" ? Is it a mistake or some sort of exception ?

I think that's incorrect, they'd always (at least, in EB's timeframe) pronounce it like 'k'. For example, Caesar was pronounced as 'Kaisar'. More or less the same as [Prinkipés] and [Kaligula].