Latin/Pronunciation Consonants

Consonants

Consonant	Latin example	Classical^[1]		Ecclesiastical^[2]
Consonant	Latin example	Sounds like	Listen	Sounds like	Listen
b	barbaria	bob		bob
c followed by e, i, ae, oe, y	caelestis	cat		chat
c otherwise	cattus	cat		cat
d	dīrēctus	dad		dad
f	fānāticus	fun		fun
g followed by e, i, ae, oe, y	genus	gag		gerbil
g otherwise	gubernātor	gag		gag
h	herba	honey		honor^[3]
i at beginning of word, j^[4]	Jēsūs	yes		yes
k	Kalendae	keep		keep
l	littera	loll		loll
m	maximus	mom		mom
n	numerus	nun		nun
p	populus	pop		pop
q	quantum	quiet		quiet
r^[5]	religiō	roar		roar
s	miser	sassy		sassy
t followed by i and another vowel and preceded by any letter other than s, t, x	differentia	tatter		tsetse
t otherwise	toga	tatter		tatter
v^[6]	vīvārium	wow		vine
x in words beginning with ex followed by a vowel, h, or s	exhālō	axe		eggs
x otherwise	extrā	axe		axe
z	zōdiacus	adze		adze

For a much fuller version of this guide, see this Wikibooks page.

↑ Wheelock, p. xlii
↑ de Angelis, pp. 13-21
↑ h is always silent except in the words mihi and nihil, where it is pronounced as k.
↑ There was no letter J in the old Latin alphabet; instead the letter I was used. In fact, J was not even formally considered a separate letter from I in English until 1828 (Sacks, pp. 186, 196). In this book, we will not use J, and so we will use Iēsūs and not Jēsūs. Vicipaedia also does not use J.
↑ Use the alveolar trill (hear this on Wikipedia), and not the retroflex approximant (hear this on Wikipedia).
↑ As with J, the letter V was not considered distinct from U in English until 1828 (Sacks, p. 327). We will use V throughout this book. Vicipaedia also uses V.

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