Latin vowel inventory

Hello.

I was reading a TY (Teach Yourself) Latin book and looked at the
pronunciation section. This is what it said, converted to SAMPA, of course:

(left indicates "long" vowel, right indicates "short" vowel)
a /A/, /@/
e /e/ (or /ej/), /E/
i /i/, /I/
o /o/, /A/
u /u/, /U/
y /y/

Needless to say, I was dismayed that Latin might be so similar to English.
I think rather that the writer of the book, namely one Gavin Betts, is an
idiot who has no idea how it was pronounced. It's good for my sanity.

Anyway, I tend to pronouce them like this:
a /A/
e /e/ or /E/
i /i/
o /o/
u /u/
y /i/

The long vowels would actually be longer than the short ones.

I imagine that we're both wrong, Gavin and I, but would you please correct
us?

~Wright

Replies