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Re: [romconlang] Classical pronunciation of -ia/-ium?

On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 12:25:28 -0400, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@hidden.email> wrote: 


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.
You're quite right. I read a comma where there wasn't one. Please disregard my previous post in this thread. 

That'll teach me to post based on slim evidence and no actual knowledge.




Paul