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On Tue, Jun 01, 2004 at 05:12:39PM +0100, Carl Edlund Anderson wrote: > This is probably a foolish question, but I was wondering if someone > could confirm what the likely pronunciation of Classical Latin <i> was > in endings like -ia and -ium. I read on > <http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Latin/Grammar/Latin-Pronunciation-Syllable-Accent.html> > that <i> is pronounced as the semivowel /j/ at the beginning of the > words (including those appearing as parts of a compound) before a vowel > or in the middle of the words between two vowels. That suggests to me > that in -ia or -ium the <i> was indeed pronounced as the front vowel > /i/. Or not? Your reading is correct. The reconstructed Classical pronunciation of Latin has no falling diphthongs. The above rules tell you when an I is to be treated as a consonant /j/, but otherwise it is always a vowel (not necessarily /i/, though; sometimes it is /I/). Thus the final sequences -<ia> and -<ium> are bisyllabic. -Mark