Most consonants in Latin sound just like their English counterparts.
- B sounds like B.
- D sounds like D.
- F sounds like F.
- L sounds like L.
- M sounds like M.
- N sounds like N.
- P sounds as P.
- Q sounds like Q.
- S sounds like S.
- T sounds like T.
- V sounds like V or W.
- X sounds like X.
That's most of the alphabet. Now for the letters, they're quite nice.
C and G are pronounced differently depending on the following vowel. If it is a back vowel (i.e. A, O or U), it is pronounced "hard", as in cot and got respectively. When followed by a front vowel (E, I, Y, AE, or OE), the C is softened to the CH sound you hear in English words like church (never to an S sound as in English!), and the G is softened to a J sound.
If C or G is not allowed to change the sound before a front vowel, an H is inserted between the consonant and vowel to indicate this fact:
Ci=Chee
Chi = Kee
The H sound in Latin is very weak. It is actually often quiet. Some choirs learn to pronounce it as a K sound in words like Mihi or Nihil, but we don't learn that in this book.
J doesn't make anything close to the sound the English J makes. The J sound in English words like Jump would be written G in Latin. Giamp. In Latin, J makes the same sound as the English consonant Y. In English we write "yes", but in Latin we write "jes". This point is of particular importance because the name of Jesus is spelled the same in Latin as it is in English, but pronounced differently. We should also keep in mind that some people will not use the letter J at all and will revert to the letter I. That's okay. It still makes the same sound whether we put the hook in the bottom or not. Jesus is pronounced Yehsoos in Latin.
R in Latin is rolled and is not a semi-vowel. Many writers misspelled it as L because they were so close in sound. The Latin R is sonically somewhere between the letter D and the letter L. If you can get a copy of the old Batman TV show, find an episode where Earth Kitt played Catwoman. She has the perfect R sound. If you can sound like them, say your Latin R Perrrrrrfact, but be careful, Adam West might come out of the bushes looking for his lost love.
