1 Wo Lautzeichen in Paaren auftreten, repräsentiert das linke Lautzeichen einen stimmlosen und das rechte Lautzeichen einen stimmhaften Laut. 2 Dieses Zeichen ist nicht im internationalen phonetischen Alphabet aufgeführt, wird in der Literatur jedoch häufig zur Wiedergabe dieses Lauts genutzt.
↑⟨c⟩ and ⟨k⟩ both represent /k/. In archaic inscriptions of Early Latin, ⟨c⟩ was primarily used before ⟨i⟩ and ⟨e⟩, while ⟨k⟩ was used before ⟨a⟩. However, in classical times, ⟨k⟩ had been replaced by ⟨c⟩, except in a very small number of words.[1] ⟨q⟩ clarified minimal pairs between /k/ and /kʷ/, making it possible to distinguish between cui/kuj/ (with a diphthong) and quꟾ/kʷiː/ (with a labialized velar stop). ⟨x⟩ represented the consonant cluster /ks/, which in Old Latin which could be spelled ⟨ks⟩, ⟨cs⟩ or ⟨xs⟩. Adding to all this, ⟨c⟩ originally represented both /k/ and /ɡ/. Hence, it was used in the abbreviation of common praenomina (first names): [[Gaius|gáivs]] was written as c. and [[Gnaeus|gnaeus]] as cn. Misunderstanding of this convention has led to the erroneous spelling ⟨Caius⟩.
↑The digraphs representing aspirated phonemes began to be used in writing around the middle of the second century B.C. and were primarily employed for transcribing Greek names and loan-words containing the aspirated sounds represented by phi (⟨φ⟩ /pʰ/), theta (⟨θ⟩ /tʰ/), and chi (⟨χ⟩ /kʰ/), e.g. philippus, cithara, and achaea. In such cases, the aspiration was likely reproduced only by educated speakers.[3] Subsequently, the aspirates began making an appearance in a number of Latin words which were not learned borrowings from classical Greek, initially as allophones of the unaspirated plosives, in proximity to /l/ and /r/. Because ⟨ch⟩, ⟨ph⟩ and ⟨th⟩ were already available to represent these sounds graphically, this resulted in standard forms such as pvlcher, lachrima, gracchvs, trivmphvs, thereby reducing the phonemes' erstwhile marginal status, at least among educated speakers.[4]
↑/z/ was at first represented by ⟨s⟩ or ⟨ss⟩ in Koine Greek loanwords (e.g. sona from ζώνη). Around the second and first centuries BCE, zeta (⟨ζ⟩) was adopted to represent /z/. Based on Italian Greek, where ⟨ζ⟩ was still pronounced /dz/, di- and de- before a vowel in Latin replaced z standing for /dz/: zeta for diaeta. Thereafter z was either /z/ or /dz/.[5] In classical verse, ⟨z⟩ always counted as two consonants.[6] This might mean that the sound was geminated, i.e. [zː], or pronounced /dz/.
↑The phoneme represented by ⟨f⟩ may have also represented a bilabial [ɸ] in Early Latin or perhaps in free variation with [f]. Lloyd, Sturtevant and Kent make this argument based on certain misspellings of inscriptions, the Proto-Indo-European phone from which the Latin ⟨f⟩ descended, and the way the sound appears to have behaved in Vulgar Latin, particularly in Spain.[7]
↑It is likely that, by the Classical period, /m/ at the end of words was pronounced weakly, either voiceless or simply by nasalizing the preceding vowel.[8] For instance decem ('ten') was probably pronounced [ˈdɛkɛ̃]. In addition to the metrical features of Latin poetry, the fact that all such endings in words of more than two syllables lost the final ⟨m⟩ in the descendant Romance languages strengthens this hypothesis. For simplicity, and because this is not known for certain, ⟨m⟩ is always represented as the phoneme /m/ here and in other references.
↑The Latin rhotic was either an alveolar trill[r], like Spanish or Italian ⟨rr⟩, or maybe an alveolar flap[ɾ], with a tap of the tongue against the upper gums, as in Spanish ⟨r⟩.[11]
↑/l/ (represented by ⟨l⟩) is thought to have had two allophones in Latin, comparable to many varieties of modern English. In ancient Roman grammatical discussions, these variants were known as l pinguis "thick l" and l exīlis "thin l". It appears that "thick l" was velarized[ɫ] as in English full, while "thin l" was a plain alveolar lateral approximant[l] approximately as in English leaf (or even better, as in Spanish or German). There is some disagreement about in exactly which circumstances the different allophones occurred. According to Andrew Sihler,[12] comparative evidence indicates that, when after a vowel, l exīlis[l] occurred before an /i/ or another /l/, while l pinguis[ɫ] occurred in all other circumstances. According to Allen, /l/ when not after a vowel (word-initial or following a consonant) was always l exīlis[l].[13]
↑/j/ appears at the beginning of words before a vowel, or in the middle of the words between two vowels; in the latter case, the sound is usually doubled, and is sometimes spelled accordingly (for instance in Cicero and Julius Caesar):[14]iv́s/ˈjuːs/, cvivs/ˈkujjus/. Because such a doubled consonant in the middle of a word makes the preceding syllable heavy, the vowel in that syllable is traditionally marked with a macron in dictionaries, although the vowel is usually short: ⟨cv́ivs⟩ or ⟨cv́jvs⟩. Compound words preserve the /j/ of the element that begins with it: adiectꟾvvm/adjekˈtiːwum/. Note that intervocalic ⟨i⟩ can sometimes represent a separate syllabic vowel /i/, such as in the praenomengáivs/ˈɡaː.i.us/.
↑⟨v⟩ and ⟨i⟩, in addition to representing vowels, were used to represent the corresponding approximants. Before a vocalic ⟨i⟩ the semiconsonant was often omitted altogether in spelling, for instance in réicit[ˈrejjɪkɪt] ('he/she/it threw back').
1 Wo Lautzeichen in Paaren auftreten, repräsentiert das linke Lautzeichen einen stimmlosen und das rechte Lautzeichen einen stimmhaften Laut. 2 Dieses Zeichen ist nicht im internationalen phonetischen Alphabet aufgeführt, wird in der Literatur jedoch häufig zur Wiedergabe dieses Lauts genutzt.
1 Wo Lautzeichen in Paaren auftreten, repräsentiert das linke Lautzeichen einen stimmlosen und das rechte Lautzeichen einen stimmhaften Laut. 2 Dieses Zeichen ist nicht im internationalen phonetischen Alphabet aufgeführt, wird in der Literatur jedoch häufig zur Wiedergabe dieses Lauts genutzt.
