Do you all pronounce the letter v as w when reading Latin? Is that how it’s taught at universities? And is that how it was pronounce by Medieval and Renaissance writers?
Gratias vobis ago.
The shift in pronunciation from the “classical” w-sound to something like English v happened pretty early, way before the middle ages. So no, medieval and renaissance speakers / writers of Latin did not pronounce the letter v like the English w.
Here in Germany, the classical pronunciation is what’s usually taught at the university level nowadays, but it is often “Germanized” quite a bit, which means not everyone uses the w-sound.
My personal opinion is that both the reconstructed classical pronunciation and the various traditional pronunciations of Latin (such as the Italian pronunciation) are fine, as long as you are consistent and know what you are doing.
Awesome. Thanks for that reassurance. So for when I read classical text I’ll pronounce the letter v as w and change that for later Latin writings. By the way, isn’t it the other way around in Germany? I.e. isn’t the letter w pronounce like the letter v?
In German, the letter w is pronounced like the English v, right. The letter v, on the other hand, is pronounced either like the English v or like an f, depending on the word: The v in Vater (= father) is pronounced like an f, while the v in the word Vase (= vase) sounds like the English v.
The English w-sound does not occur in German, which is why some people from Germany use a v-sound in its place when speaking English - or Latin, as I’ve mentioned above. Sometimes Germans will also pronounce the v in English words as an English w, which can be explained as hypercorrection: They try to sound English by using the more English-sounding w-sound even where it is not appropriate.
American universities that I know of all use classical pronunciation. Most Latin teachers at the secondary level therefore have an almost religious attachment to it. A fun video on the subject: