I am fifteen years old and have recently begun teaching myself Latin with Hans Orberg’s Lingua Latina series, which I’m having quite a lot of fun with. I am, however, worried about my pronunciation a bit. I have studied the pronunciation guides in the front of several grammars and dictionaries, and listened to some short clips of Latin being spoken on the Internet, so I think I at least have decent pronunciation, but simply decent is not good enough for me. Does anyone have any tips for a self-learner? (I am especially worried about reading texts without macrons to indicate vowel length.)
Hello, Keegan, and welcome! I’m very pleased to hear you’re using Lingua Latina. As for precise tips, though I’d be happy to offer them, I would have to hear your present pronunciation first. Other than that, I might email you recordings of certain passages with which you find difficulty according to my best interpretation of the pronunciation. My email is not functioning well at the moment, but if you want to discuss further options of this nature I’ll happy respond to a PM.
Welcome!
Salve Keegan,
I don’t have “Lingua Latina” but it is on my next buy list. Anyhow I saw that the same author sells a CD-Room with the book and audio files for chapters I to XXXI.
I had download the demo of “Familia Romana” and I don’t think that the audio files are in restored Latin pronunciation as I think the “v”s are spoken sometimes as the English “w” and other times as “v” of “victory”.
But the author also sells “Latine Disco” that is a student manual and it is said to have pronunciation instructions. He also sells the CD “Latine audio” that as the chapters I to X in the restored pronunciation of classical Latin. Since this last CD only costs 8 Euros it can be a good choice that will give you a continue Latin text to hear, opposing the small and fragments we usually find in the Internet.
Keep in mind that I don’t have any of these so I can’t guarantee the quality of them, but when I finish the “Latin for Beginners”, hopefully this century, I will buy “Familia Romana” plus “Latine Disco” plus “Latine Audio”.
On the other hand you have the offer of Lucus Eques to help you and I think that nothing can beat the interaction with a more advance person in Latin.
Hope this helps.
Andrus
Hi Keegan,
I suggest you get the Audio CD avaialble from Focus Publishing, the publisher of Lingua Latina. The CD isn’t great in and of itself… the interface is awful in my opinion. However, the audio files are MP3 which means you can copy them to your MP3 player and play each chapter as needed. All 31 chapters are read in the Classical pronunciation!
Before I read a chapter, I listen to the reading of the chapter and follow along in Lingua Latina. Afterwords, I read the chapter to myself. After this I repeat reading along again to reinforce my pronunciation.
The CD is 24.95 and well worth it!
Here’s the link to the website where you can purchase a copy:
http://www.focusbookstore.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=7
Good Luck in your study!
Cheers,
Mark
I wonder if you can clear up the issue of the restored Classical Latin pronunciation issue Andrus raised?
There are two CDs available. One is audio only (first 10 chapters only), the other is the CD-ROM you pointed out (that has the whole book).
Are the (overlapping) readings the same? I can’t preview the CD-ROM as I’m still waiting for the MAC version to be released, but have been planning on purchasing it upon release. Anyone?
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Unfortunately, I’m currently tight for cash and can’t even afford the audio CD (though I would like to hear what is to be said about it’s quality first). Fortunately, I have recently found an old microphone, so in the near future, I hope to post some sound files of me reading for criticism.
Keegan, I highly recommend that you listen to Lucus pronounce something from LL; his grasp of the restored pronunciation is very near perfection, and also (because your resources are currently limited) you don’t have to spend anything. You can then model your own pronunciation after a living voice.
It is also quite recommendable that you memorise where the macrons go. LL of course has them all in their correct places, but that doesn’t ensure you learn them; namely I would write them all out, always. If you do learn them then you can eventually read texts that don’t include macrons while still unconsciously bearing them in mind.
Good luck! 
Thanks for the kind compliment, Nostos. 
Your recommendation about the macrons is absolutely correct.