Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin [Paperback]

W. Sidney Allen (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521379369 | ISBN-13: 978-0521379366 | Publication Date: August 25, 1989 | Edition: 2

This is a reissue in paperback of the second edition of Professor Allen's highly successful book on the pronunciation of Latin in Rome in the Golden Age. In the second edition the text of the first edition is reprinted virtually unchanged but is followed by a section of supplementary notes that deal with subsequent developments in the subject. The author also added an appendix on the names of the letters of the Latin alphabet and a select bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is a model of clarity and succinctness. Professor Allen picks his way through a maze of converging and diverging evidence, and presents an intelligible and credible account of what classical Latin sounded like." Phonetica

"It is a reference that all Latin teachers should own." The Modern Language Journal

Product Details

• Paperback: 148 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (August 25, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521379369
• ISBN-13: 978-0521379366
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #605,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent though often technical discussion, December 12, 2001

By 

Daniel L Pratt (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin (Paperback)

Ever wonder how they know how Latin was pronounced in Roman times? This book is for you. Though technical at times, it appears to be self-contained. The author respectfully discusses views that differ from his own. The classical pronunciation taught in classrooms differs in small but perhaps significant ways from the pronunciation reconstructed in this book. At least it will no longer be a mystery why Vergil and other poets "elide" the final syllables of words ending in "m" when the following word begins with a vowel.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 40 years later still the resource for the reconstructed pronunciation of Latin, September 9, 2005

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin (Paperback)

VOX LATINA is W. Sidney Allen's reconstruction of the pronunciation of Latin in the classical period using a variety of ancient sources. It is a companion to his VOX GRAECA reconstruction of Attic Greek pronunciation and, like the Greek work, *the* work on the subject.

VOX LATINA presupposes no knowledge of general linguistics and is accessible by any undergraduate studying Latin. It includes a ten-page introduction to phonetics to get the reader up to speed. The reconstruction pronunciation is divided into six areas, these being consonants, vowels, vowel length, vowel junction, accent, and quantity. A series of appendices contains selected quotations from Latin grammarians and a chronology of these sources, a history of Latin pronunciation in England, and the names of the letters of the alphabet in Latin.

My only real complaints are the same as those I have against VOX GRAECA, namely that Sidney Allen uses "y" to transcribe one of the semivowels instead of "j" as the IPA would have it. And though the IPA (with Allen's idiosyncracies) is used through most of the book, the quick-reference "Summary of Recommended Pronunciations" at the end gives examples with analogies to undependable Received Pronunciation English, French or German sounds ("o as German 'Bott'", "short u as in English 'put'").

If you are a Latin student interested in broader themes of historical linguistics, VOX LATINA is an essential purchase, as is its companion VOX GRAECA. A secure knowledge of the reconstructed pronunciation will be of enormous help in drawing comparisons with other Indo-European languages and memorising Proto-Indo-European roots.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pronouncing Latin (even Marius' way!), September 1, 2006

By 

Marius the Wanderer "Roleplayer, Storyteller,... - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin (Paperback)

The best serious attempt to reconstruct Latin pronunciation has got to be _Vox Latina_ by W. Sidney Allen. This book is surprisingly slender and a pleasure to read even if one is not a hard-core phoneticist. And it is the one reference on the subject cited by nearly all the others.

Professor Allen first discusses the many ways Latin has been pronounced, including Church Latin, proto-Romance (iirc), and some of the gods-awful constructs heard in British boys' academies and similar settings. He then pieces together, as much as one can from ancient grammarians and other primary sources, just what sound elements most likely *did* make up Classical Latin. His schematic makes room for the development of Latin after its "Golden Age" (which is where Marius gets off with his Spanish V's; Cicero would've been appalled, but they were trending that direction by Quintilian's time).

There are no final answers here, only best guesses--and as with so much else in Roman civilization, the "right" thing really depends on what year it was and which neck of the woods you were in. Find it used; it's worth the search!