Infantulus - Alphabet & Pronunciation - Consonants

Salvēte Discipulī,

How do you make your electronic macrons? I make 'em with the Tavultesoft Keyman program and  the European Latin keyboard (european.kmx). Installing the program and keyboard file and setting them up was a little difficult the first time, but using them is always easy. Just fire up Keyman into memory, hit your hotkey(s) while inside Word, Explorer, or whatever program you are typing into, and you're ready to type Latin. To type a macron, type the underline key then the vowel, that's all there is to it. There's also a great "Greek Classical" keyboard, from Manual A. Lopez. Oh, and all are free.

Here is added the first consonant question.

Vowels.

Q: What are the Latin vowels?

a, e, i, o, u, and y. The rest are consonants.

Q: How do they sound when short?

a sounds like the “ah” in aha,
e like the “eh” in met,
i like the “i” in bit,
o like the “oh” in omit,
u like the “oo” in foot, and
y like the “y” in Syrius. [like German ü; form lips for oo but say ee].

Q: A vowel is short before what letters?

A vowel is short before nd, nt, h, or another vowel. A vowel is also short before final m or t and, in multi-syllable words, l or r.

Q: Long vowels are marked by macrons. How do they sound?

ā (“a-macron”) sounds like the “aah” in father,
ē like the “ey” in they,
ī like the “ee” in machine,
ō like the “oh” in note,
ū like the “ooo” in rule, and
ŷ like “yy.” [like y, above, but held twice as long].

Q: A vowel is long before what letters?

A vowel is long before nf, ns, nx, and nct.

Q: What are the Latin diphthongs?

The Latin diphthongs are
a-e, “ae” as in aisle,
a-u, “au” as in now,
e-i, “ei” as in eight,
e-u, “eu” as in feud,
o-e, “oe” as in joy, and
u-i, “ui” as in suite.

Consonants.

Q: Most consonants sound like their English equivalents. How do c, g, r, t, and s sound?

Like cat, go, run, to, and see; r is trilled.

Four more consonant questions coming up. We won't cover all the rules because there are simply too many and too many exceptions. We'll just grab the basics, the stuff you are most likely to see and only the ones hardest to remember. Keep practicing every day, several times a day, alone and with a partner. You are not just improving your knowledge, memory, and concentration, you're improving your society.

Infantulus - Alphabet & Pronunciation - Vowels (con'd)

Do you have a study partner yet? This program is designed to be worked with other people. If you don't have a partner yet, grab someone, anyone, and have them test you every day.

Here are the first six questions. Five questions on the consonants are next.

Vowels.

Q: What are the Latin vowels?

a, e, i, o, u, and y. The rest are consonants.

Q: How do they sound when short?

a sounds like the “ah” in aha,
e like the “eh” in met,
i like the “i” in bit,
o like the “oh” in omit,
u like the “oo” in foot, and
y like the “y” in Syrius. [like German ü; form lips for oo but say ee].

Q: A vowel is short before what letters?

A vowel is short before nd, nt, h, or another vowel. A vowel is also short before final m or t and, in multi-syllable words, l or r.

Q: Long vowels are marked by macrons. How do they sound?

ā (“a-macron”) sounds like the “aah” in father,
ē like the “ey” in they,
ī like the “ee” in machine,
ō like the “oh” in note,
ū like the “ooo” in rule, and
ŷ like “yy.” [like y, above, but held twice as long].

Q: A vowel is long before what letters?

A vowel is long before nf, ns, nx, and nct.

Q: What are the Latin diphthongs?

The Latin diphthongs are
a-e, “ae” as in aisle,
a-u, “au” as in now,
e-i, “ei” as in eight,
e-u, “eu” as in feud,
o-e, “oe” as in joy, and
u-i, “ui” as in suite.

Infantulus - Alphabet & Pronunciation - Vowels (con'd)

Remember, when sitting for a test you are a "student" of that level. After you answer all the questions perfectly, you become a "teacher." When you know all the questions and answers exactly, you are qualified as an "examiner." I recommend that you memorize about one question every single day, and rehearse all questions and answers you have already learned, several times a day.  There are 21 questions in this first level; you have 16 more to learn after this one.
 
Vowels.
Q: What are the Latin vowels?
a, e, i, o, u, and y. The rest are consonants.

Q: How do they sound when short?

a sounds like the “ah” in aha,
e like the “eh” in met,
i like the “i” in bit,
o like the “oh” in omit,
u like the “oo” in foot, and
y like the “y” in Syrius. [like German ü; form lips for oo but say ee].

Q: A vowel is short before what letters?

A vowel is short before nd, nt, h, or another vowel. A vowel is also short before final m or t and, in multi-syllable words, l or r.

Q: Long vowels are marked by macrons. How do they sound?

ā (“a-macron”) sounds like the “aah” in father,
ē like the “ey” in they,
ī like the “ee” in machine,
ō like the “oh” in note,
ū like the “ooo” in rule, and
ŷ like “yy.” [like y, above, but held twice as long].

Q: A vowel is long before what letters?

A vowel is long before nf, ns, nx, and nct.

Keep practicing! You want a very strong foundation for your own studies, and you need to be able to recite thousands of facts like these quickly while working in front of your students. Your progress may seem slow to you at first, but keep steadily at it. You know what they say, We overestimate what we can do in the short run but underestimate what we can accomplish over a longer period. Consistent progress and repetition is the key. Especially in language study, the tortoise beats the hare.

Infantulus - Alphabet & Pronunciation - Vowels (con'd)

Salvēte, Discipulī, (Hello, Students),
Here again are the first three questions and answers of the first level, along with the fourth:

Q: What are the Latin vowels?

a, e, i, o, u, and y. The rest are consonants.

Q: How do they sound when short?

a sounds like the “ah” in aha,
e like the “eh” in met,
i like the “i” in bit,
o like the “oh” in omit,
u like the “oo” in foot, and
y like the “y” in Syrius. [like German ü; form lips for oo but say ee].

Q: A vowel is short before what letters?

A vowel is short before nd, nt, h, or another vowel. A vowel is also short before final m or t and, in multi-syllable words, l or r.

Q: Long vowels are marked by macrons. How do they sound?

ā (“a-macron”) sounds like the “aah” in father,
ē like the “ey” in they,
ī like the “ee” in machine,
ō like the “oh” in note,
ū like the “ooo” in rule, and
ŷ like “yy.” [like y, above, but held twice as long].

So, when we read dēscendendī, the word used to help describe the only way which Winnie Ille Pu knows of coming downstairs, we know that the first e is pronounced long like the "ey" in they while the other two are short like the "eh" in met, and that the final i is pronounced long like the i in machine.

There's that y vowel again, this time new and improved, longer lasting than before. Get it right now, of course, but don't be surprised if it gathers a bit of dust before you get a chance to use it.

Infantulus - Alphabet & Pronunciation - Vowels (con'd)

Here are the first three questions and answers in the first section.

Q: What are the Latin vowels?

a, e, i, o, u, and y. The rest are consonants.

Q: How do they sound when short?
a sounds like the “ah” in aha,
e like the “eh” in met,
i like the “i” in bit,
o like the “oh” in omit,
u like the “oo” in foot, and
y like the “y” in Syrius. [like German ü; form lips for oo but say ee].

Q: A vowel is short before what letters?
A vowel is short before nd, nt, h, or another vowel. A vowel is also short before final m or t and, in multi-syllable words, l or r.

So, when we read ostentantur, they are introduced, in the Alexander Lenard translation of A. A. Milne's story of that "silly old bear," in which Winnie the Pooh and the bees are introduced to us, we know that the e, a, and u are pronounded short like the "eh" in met, the "ah" in aha, and the "oo" in foot.

Infantulus - Alphabet & Pronunciation - Vowels (con'd)

Here are the first two questions in the first level:

Q: What are the Latin vowels?

a, e, i, o, u, and y. The rest are consonants.

Q: How do they sound when short?
a sounds like the “ah” in aha,
e like the “eh” in met,
i like the “i” in bit,
o like the “oh” in omit,
u like the “oo” in foot, and
y like the “y” in Syrius. [like German ü; form lips for oo but say ee].

These were the sounds, though not the exact mnemonics, I learned when I first began learning Latin through Karen Moh's Latin's Not So Tough! (http://www.greeknstuff.com/) workbook series a decade ago, when my elementary-age children and I first began. (A decade? *Sigh*, tempus fugit, time flies, or literally, time flees.)

You should learn the answers to these questions exactly as written here in order to pass your oral examination and become a teacher of this level. And, to pass to examiner status, you must also know the questions exactly.

Yy is an interesting oddity. Though rare, it is one of those things strange enough that one must spend, seemingly, more time learning it than will ever be spent using it. Hans Orberg's Lingua Latina, for example, has you practice saying Aegyptus, Egypt, and Syria on the first page of Familia Romana, and the whole first conversation of his companion book, Colloquia Personarum, has the children discussing how to pronounce the same two words. My students enjoyed learning how to make the sound - a little bit to distraction, actually. But it's fun.

 

Infantulus - Alphabet & Pronunciation - Vowels

From the first section: 

This section assumes the reconstructed classical pronunciation. You may substitute your own. Infantulus means a little infant, a little child, or one who cannot speak. It’s where our word” infant” comes from, as well as the French, “enfant terrible,” terrible or shocking child.

Here is the first question in the book. All the questions have been formatted in this simple way because of its aural or oral nature and to accomodate multiple ebook readers. There are about 735 questions: 

Q: What are the Latin vowels?

a, e, i, o, u, and y. The rest are consonants. 

This is merely a study and examination text, so it is shorter and simpler than a beginner or grammar book and has not the full discussions you will find there. For example, one thing that is not in the Latin Grammar Rite are the interesting tidbits about how our vowels are not exactly correct, at least according to Roman standards. Wheelock's Latin explains:

The Roman alphabet was like ours except that it lacked the letters j and w. Furthermore, the letter v originally stood for both the sound of the vowel u and the sound of the consonant w. Not till the second century of our era did the rounded u-form appear, but for convenience both v and u are employed in the Latin texts of most modern editions. The letter k was rarely used, and then only before a, in a very few words. The letters y and z were introduced toward the end of the Republic to be used in spelling words of Greek origin.

It's interesting to me that the German word for u is upsilon, which is also the Greek word for y, and that the sounds for German and Greek upsilon (Ψψ) are very similar to that for Latin y. Connectivity, I love it.