Re: Latin vowel inventory

Quoting "Thomas R. Wier" <trwier@...>:

> Quoting Tristan McLeay <zsau@...>:
>
> > On Wed, 30 Jul 2003, Mark J. Reed wrote:
> >
> > > However, for centuries it was customary to pronounce Latin as if it
> > > were the local dominant language, so in England Latin was pronounced
> > > as if it were English, in Italy as if it were Italian, etc.  The
> > > English pronunciation survives in many borrowings, and is used for
> > > almost all Latin in the legal and medical professions.  The Italian
> > > pronunciation was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church and is today
> > > often called the Ecclesiastical Pronunciation.  In it, the short/long
> > > vowel distinction is not made at all.
> >
> > So in the English one, was long a pronounced as ay, long e as ee, long i
> > as igh? Was long o oo (boot) or oa (open)? And was long u ue (hue) or or
> > ow (how)?
>
> Indeed.  When an American legislature adjourns without setting
> a dating for reconvening, it adjourns "sine die" [saIni daI] -
> a direct reflex of the Great Vowel Shift.
Is there any particular reason for dropping the second final -e, but not the
first one?

                                                              Andreas

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