Customer Reviews

Pronunciation and Reading of Classical Latin: A Practical Guide (Living Voice of Greek & Latin)

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This overview of Latin pronunciation, spoken beautifully, is helpful for anyone who wants to practce classical Latin. There are numerous examples, and spaces for you to repeat them. At last the nasalization of endings like -um in bellum is clear! Most helpful was the professor's laying out of his technique of 5 stages for acquiring the correct pronunciation of whole passages of prose and poetry--I intend to rely on it. I felt a little fear when he started to discuss scansion of verse (since I am just beginning my review of the Latin I learned over 50 years ago), but again he was a model of clarity. He also reads--very beautifully--some well known poetry and prose (for example, Catullus 101), and I felt such a connection with the oral Latin tradition that I wished I coud hear him read many more passages. He dealt briefly with the issue of elision, and for the first time, I think I got it.
I even found myself feeling encouraged by his kind words about the time it takes to read fluently.
The only downside is that these are audiocasettes, so you are limited in how you can use them. (No putting this on your ipod, for example.) I listen to them in my car, which is fine, but it would be wonderful if the lectures were available on CD.