Latin has many versions of pronunciation. In Ecclesiastical pronunciation and many traditional pronunciations, the length of vowels is not taken into consideration. The length of the penultimate syllable is important, though, because it decides about the stress :
- if the penultimate vowel or syllable is long, the stress in on it
- if the penultimate vowel is short, the penultimate syllable is not stressed.
These rules have quite many exceptions, but they should allow to pronounce correctly maybe 90%, maybe 95% of words in a Latin text.
Main rules :
- when a vowel is before another vowel or h, it is short
- when a vowel is before two consonants, the syllable is long; x counts as 2 consonants (exception is so called muta cum liquida, but it's not a very frequent situation).
The problem appears before a single consonant : Vowels in the penultimate syllable :
1. au, eu, ae, oe are long
2. a is almost always long
3. o is almost always long
- exceptions : forms of nouns in -us, -oris (tempus, temporis, corpus, corporis), nouns in -cola (incola)
4. u is short before l ( suffixes : -ulus ,-ula,-ulum : populus, animula))
else – u is rather long (but there are many exceptions)
5. i is more problematic :
i is long before v, r, s
i is long in the verbs of 4th conjugation (audimus, finimus etc.) - it's difficult to recognize for beginners
i is long in many words before n (Latinus, Latina), but even in this position it's more often short (unstressed)
else – i is more often short
5. e : e is long before b, l, m (endings : -ebat, -ebam, -ebas, -ebant, -ebus, -elis, -mus, -tis, -mur, -tur)
e is long before t, with exceptions (especially before -tur and -tis)
e is most problematic before r, errors are frequent in this position
e is most often long in -erunt
else – e is more often short
6. Very problematic is -ere, -eri (often infinitive endings):
in -ere (infinitive ending) e is more often short than long, but in the second conjugation it's long (videre) ; if we know that it's the second conjugation (like video, videre), e is long
in -eri the situation is complicated, if we know that it's the second conjugation (like video, videri), e is long , else it's short
7. Additions: The rules have exceptions, concerning different words. Especially nouns borrowed from Greek are exceptions. Most popular exceptions will be collected here :
i is long in the endings of verbs of the fourth conjugation, like audire (auditus)
i is long in words : amicus, paradisus, disciplina, Maria, hostilis, Catilina
i is long in more words with the suffix -inus (Capitolinus)
a is short in forms of Caesar (Caesaris)
u is short in words in -sumus
i is long after d, n before l (aedilis, sedile) (but long after any other consonant)
Sure situations (typical suffixes, they agree with rules from above, but they are more "secure" cases, exceptions are rare):
- for sure o is long in adjectives in -osus, nouns in -o, -onis (Neronis)
- for sure i is short in : endings : -iter (celeriter), -itas (civitas), -ibus ; nouns in : -o / -en , -inis (multitudinis, fluminis) , -itis (capitis)
- u is long in suffix : -us, -utis (iuventus, iuventutis, salutis, senectutis)