your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

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1%homeless
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your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by 1%homeless »

My teacher says you pronounce the initial "i" as a short "i" vowel and not the "y" semi-vowel sound. Do you concur? They are very similar sounds, but I assume you need to pause a bit between between those two i's if you pronounce the "i" as a short i vowel to avoid a diphthong sound (or in the case of iit, to make vowel distinction), which I think feels unnatural... Any thoughts on this?

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Post by Michaelyus »

You are right in saying the first i is shortened (the second is stressed more) and that there is a gap (a glottal stop) between the two is.

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Post by 1%homeless »

...that there is a gap (a glottal stop)
Yeah, I was thinking if I should use a glottal stop like my teacher does, but I never encountered glottal stops when I read about Latin pronunciation, so I tried to avoid it. Actually, I would prefer to use glottal stops...

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Post by Mark »

Yes, I pronounce it as ee-ee, ee-it, ee-ayrunt.
Although if you say those words quickly, it eventually can sound like the y semi-vowel.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by spqr »

Why wouldn't consonantal y pronunciation be used in these examples?

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by adrianus »

spqr wrote:Why wouldn't consonantal y pronunciation be used in these examples?
Because i in the examples is a vowel marking a unique syllable. Consonantal y has a IPA j sound (as y in yacht).
Quod syllabam unicam denotat omnis i littera verborum istorum.
ii, iit = 2 syllables // duas syllabas habent
ierunt = 3 syllables // tres syllabas.

Ego equidem sic sono: i per IPA i sonitum sono, et iit (i-it) IPA i sonitum bis sono, non anglicè per i-It.
I try to give all the i's the same IPA i sound and just change the length, not the sound, for a long i vowel.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by SgtMurphy »

The way I generally pronounce i:
'i' sound when an i follows, e.g. -ii, -iit
'y' sound when anything else follows, e.g. -ierunt, iuxi, iam
That's just what I generally do, but even then, an 'i' followed by an 'i' does feel a little awkward to say.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by Lord_WayneY »

But I learned from Wheelock's Latin, it is said when i is at the beginning of a word and followed by a vowel it is pronounced as y. And the Learn to Read Latin also indicated this:
i is consonantal at the beginning of a word when followed by a vowel and in the middle of a word when it falls between vowels(biiugis, pronounced "bi-yugis"). i may also be consonantal in the middle of a compound.
Civis Sinensis.
I am here not only to learn Latin, but also English.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by adrianus »

Non autem hîc. Vocalis non consonans est littera i incipiens per "iit" quod vocabulum duas syllabas habet.
But not here. The first i is a vowel not a consonant in "iit" [="ivit"] which has 2 syllables.
Virgil, Aeneid I.376, wrote:"Troiae nomen iit, diversa per aequora vectos"
I guess it's true that if "iit" were "jit" (with a consonantal i) it would still scan, so the line from Virgil proves nothing.
Verum est, fateor: si consonans sit i incipiens per "iit", manetur scansio huius versûs.

Itidem cum hoc versu:
Same with this line:
Virgil, Aeneid II.174, wrote:sudor iit, terque ipsa solo (mirabile dictu)
Post scriptum
Nunc dubito // I'm starting to doubt myself.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by adrianus »

Vestigia quae mea verba sustineant non invenio. Forsit erro. Me excusas, centesimatectocarentum! Gratus mihi est haec quaestio quae defectum in scientiâ meâ illuminet.
Forgive, 1%homeless. I can't find evidence to support what I say. I'm glad the topic came up to highlight what I was assuming to be the case.

Post Scriptum

Finally, here is what I was looking for, which I take to mean the syllables are preserved:
En demùm quod quaesivi quod mihi significat syllabas durare:
Gildersleeve ([url]http://archive.org/stream/gildersleeveslat00gilduoft/gildersleeveslat00gilduoft_djvu.txt[/url]) wrote:"2. In the first and third persons Sing, and in the first person PL of the Perfect, syncope occurs regularly only in Perfects in ivi, and no contraction ensues."
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by mwh »

Just to back up adrianus -- and 1%homeless's teacher!
In ii, iit, ierunt etc. (i.e. perfect forms of eo) the first i has to be vocalic. This might best be approached morphologically: Start with ivi, the "regular" perfect, drop the v (Gildersleeve's "syncope"), and you get ii. The only complication is that the first i in ivi is long, but becomes short with the loss of the v (a regular phonological phenomenon). Maybe the elementary grammar books don't make this clear.

So ii is two vowels, a short i and a long i.

However (to add a twist), it's conceivable that in pronunciation a yod glide (the intervocalic y sound) was inserted between them, to mitigate or obviate the hiatus. So either i-i (short-long, with hiatus), or i-y-i (again short-long, with glide to make pronunciation easier) would be acceptable pronunciations. I'm not sure there's justification for this, though.

iuxi and iam have consonantal i, but (-)ierunt does not.

ee- is wrong: the i must be kept short, as in English "it".

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by adrianus »

But where's the classical evidence, mvh? That's what's annoying me: locating what's surely there.
Sed ubi sunt vestigia classica, mvh? Inopia vexat at certìm exstant vestigia, nonné.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by mwh »

Non omnino intelligo quid vel quid plus petas, adriane. nonne vestigia ubique inveniuntur? tu ipse locos e Vergilio sumptos adduxisti. visne scire utrum vox "iit" e duabus syllabis effecta sit an ex una sola ita ut prima lettera vim non vocalem sed consonantem (ut ita dicam) habeat? hoc certe nullo modo fieri potest, siquidem vox "iit" ab "ivit" ductast. et unde orta esset vis consonantis? vestigium verbi ipsius, hoc est illud "i-", necessest maneat! itaque res haud in dubio habendast.

Si mihi licet et tibi placet: nonne pro "certim" vis "certe"? et "nonne" non est vox quae locum ad finem habeat; melius deleas.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by Qimmik »

"vestigium verbi ipsius, hoc est illud "i-", necessest maneat!"

That's the clincher. If you reduce i- to a consonant or semi-vowel, you lose the verb stem.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by adrianus »

It is theoretically possible to demonstrate that "iit" has two syllables not one, but I can't find the evidence I'm looking for in poetry.
Id demonstrari theoreticè potest, scilicet "iit" vocabulum duas syllabas habere, at versus aptus me fugit.

Certim is fine; Certè is fine. "Nonné" has an acute accent because it's a terminating clause.
Et certim et certè dicuntur. Acutum accentum habet "nonné", quod adverbium et clausula est quae sententiam terminat.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by Qimmik »

Examples from hexameters will always be ambiguous. Look at the end of an elegiac pentameter or in lyric or iambic poetry.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by mwh »

Why do you want illustration from poetry, when consonantal i is linguistically out of the question? -- and would be ruinous to Vergil's verses

I will comment no further on your latin, if that is sort of response I get to what I took to be a sincere plea for correction.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by adrianus »

Qimmik wrote:Examples from hexameters will always be ambiguous.
If "iit" were followed by a long syllable in a word whose first letter were a vowel, would that not suggest hiatus between two short vowels in separate syllables in "iit", Qimmik?
Nonnè hiatus inter vocales breves in "iit" indicetur, Qimmik, cum longa sit prima syllaba vocabuli sequentis in quo prima littera vocalis?
mvh wrote:I will comment no further on your latin, if that is sort of response I get to what I took to be a sincere plea for correction.
Benè moratus sis, mvh. // Behave, mvh.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by Qimmik »

'If "iit" were followed by a long syllable in a word whose first letter were a vowel, would that not suggest hiatus between two short vowels in separate syllables in "iit", Qimmik?

I guess that's right.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by adrianus »

Id vestigi est quod quaero at non invenio.
That's the sort of evidence I mean but can't seem to find.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by Craig_Thomas »

Would these, with 'exiit', satisfy? 'iit', it turns out, is quite a rare form!

Verg., Georgics 2.81:
exiit ad caelum ramis felicibus arbos,

Verg., Aeneid 2.497
exiit oppositasque euicit gurgite moles,

Someone might argue that 'i' could still be a consonant in 'jit', but made a vowel in the compound to avoid the difficult to pronounce 'exjit'. But then this does not typically happen with other compounds, such as 'adjuvo'; and why would it not be 'ejit', like 'ejectus', 'ejaculor', 'ejuro'?

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by adrianus »

Craig_Thomas wrote:Someone might argue that 'i' could still be a consonant in 'jit', but made a vowel in the compound to avoid the difficult to pronounce 'exjit'.
Great, Craig_Thomas! "Exiit" has to be three syllables (long + short + short) and not two ("exjit" = long + short, which is not allowed) because the "t" goes with the following vowel. That's direct evidence for a hiatus between the short vocalic "i"s.
Macte, Craig_Thomas! Tres syllabas habet "exiit" verbum quod breves sunt vocales et "t" littera terminans ad vocalem sequentem adjungitur. Vestigium est ut sit hiatus inter i litteras breves per "iit".
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by SgtMurphy »

Craig_Thomas' evidence is convincing enough. I still believe that, in some cases, pronunciation doesn't have to be strict; I would use both 'ex-jit' and 'exi-it' when speaking, just as long as the pronunciation doesn't stray so far from the spelling as to possibly be confused for another word, such as 'exit'. I mean, even English has the different pronunciations of the word tomato. Either way you say it, a competent speaker will probably understand you.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by adrianus »

When you're speaking quickly, the difference between pronouncing "exiit" (three syllables) and "exjit" (two syllables) is negligible (it doesn't matter, as you say), but when you're speaking slowly and carefully (in teaching or learning or emphasizing), the difference is significant.

Si festinatò recitas, ut dicis, non refert discrimen inter duarum vel trium syllabarum sonos; aliter autem si lentè attentéque sonas, docendi discendive vel emphasos causâ.
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

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Re: your pronunciation of ii, iit, ierunt, etc.

Post by Aulus »

Craig_Thomas wrote:Would these, with 'exiit', satisfy? 'iit', it turns out, is quite a rare form!
J. N. Adams in Social Variation and the Latin Language (2013) notes that, in contrast with Plautus' Latin, where eō/is/it/eunt/ii/iit abound, the short conjugations of eō are pretty much limited to poetry already in the 1st c. BC...

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