Re: Latin vowel inventory

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.

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Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
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