The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #144011   Message #3327495
Posted By: Genie
23-Mar-12 - 01:13 AM
Thread Name: BS: How to pronounce this Latin phrase?
Subject: How to pronounce "de mortuis nil nisi bonum"
The only thing I'd change is that, having been taught to use pure vowel sounds in Latin for single letters, instead of dipthongs like a long "I" or long "a," I'd write it in pseudo phonetics like this:

deh more too ees neel neesee bohn um   (with the "o" in "bonum" more like the "o" in "for" than like the "o" in "so")   

The point being to try not to turn the vowels into dipthongs (the long "a" being actually the dipthong "ah-ee" and the long "o" being actually the dipthong "oh-oo")   

That may be pickier than what you were looking for, but that's what I've been taught, whether for classic Latin (which I learned in high school) or church Latin (which I've been taught in choir).