Is Ørberg's pronunciation of V correct?

Latin Learning Latin
1

Hi all! First, let me say thanks for such a fantastic resource. This board has been so helpful in figuring out which Latin method to start using.

I’m on Lingua Latina Ch. 1… just started yesterday. I noticed that when Ørberg pronounces his _V_s, sometimes he does so like the English V, and other times uses what I take to be the reconstructed pronunciation like the English W; compare the V in “fluvii” to the W in “provinciae” in this recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3K7yR2yos8

Is that correct?

I know pronunciation is a thorny subject anyway, and not something to get bogged down in, but I’d just like make sure I’m learning properly from the beginning. Thanks!

2

I haven’t listened, but Latin v is believed to have sounded somewhat like English w, i.e., a bilabial approximant, not a labio-dental fricative, at least in upper-class speech in the first century BCE. At some point, the sounds shifted to a fricative and merged with b, probably earlier in popular speech than in higher registers, as evidenced by misspellings in, e.g., graffiti.

3

Thanks Qimmik, for the quick reply.

I guess my question was more along the lines of “is it right to use both pronunciations together?” I can see picking one or the other, but Ørberg definitely switches between the two.

4

It may be that Danish v in some contexts is pronounced a little closer to English v than to English w, and this may be coloring his pronunciation or your perception of it. It’s sometimes difficult to hear the difference between the labiovelar fricative and the bilabial approximant. I would suggest sticking to one pronunciation or the other, preferably the English w pronunciation.

Actually, I think Latin v and b might have both changed to a bilabial continuant, like Spanish, rather than a labiodental continuant. But we can’t really be sure exactly how v was pronounced because there are no native speakers to demonstrate for us. We can get an approximate idea from descriptions of the sound in ancient sources, but they didn’t have the resources of the IPA available to indicate the fine details.

5

I’ve noticed in the past that the YLE Nuntii Latini readers say v somewhere between w an v. This may or may not be historical, but it sure sounds a lot better than w. And I haven’t heard anyone criticising them. On the contrary.