The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #2895   Message #13555
Posted By: Joe Offer
30-Sep-97 - 02:11 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: When Love is Kind (Thomas Moore)
Subject: RE: LYR. ADD. When Love is Kind
Well, Shula - you can get a good idea of the so-called "Italian" pronunciation of Latin from just about any Gregorian Chant recording. I wouldn't recommend the best-selling "Chant" series because those monks put an unusual Spanish accent on it. come to think about it, the Italians have a distinctive accent to their Latin, too. I prefer chant recordings from people who speak German, French, or English as a first language - because their singing sounds more like the way I'd sing it, I suppose.
A few pointers on the difference between the Italian and "Classical" pronunciations:
Italian:
"C" is soft, as in "checkers"
"OE" and "AE" are like the vowel in "hay"
"V" as in "victory"

Classical:
"C" is hard, as in "cracker"
"AE" and "OE" are pronounced like the vowel in "tie"
"V" is pronounced like a "W," which I always thought was really dumb.

My mother learned Latin in Detroit public schools, and I learned mine in a Catholic seminary. I liked to point out to her how wimpy Caesar would have sounded if he had actually said:
"wennie, widdy, wicky." (Veni, vidi, vici)
In the Italian pronunciation, it's
VAY-nee, VEE-dee, VEE-chee.

-Joe Offer, who used to be pretty good at Latin-