DeeBee wrote on 06 mei 2008 in alt.language.latin:
> How does one pronounce the word "imitatio"?
That depends.
Most people just pronounce it as if it was neary a part of their own
language, making them the laughing stock of all people from all other
modern languages.
If you want to pronounce it as the old Romans did, you will perhaps have
to declare what year, what part of Rome and what class of people.
I, from my background, think I know how to pronounce it, so that the
upper class from the time of Cicero at least could understand the word.
But I am far from sure.
I would not even be able to write phonetically what I have in mind,
because English phonetics are a puzzle in the sense that even they are
locally pronounced differently.
As you post from here:
Host name: cpc1-cmbg5-0-0-cust726.cmbg.cable.ntl.com
IP address:
you probably are from the U.K.,
and so I will try:
eeh-meeh-táht-see-oh
or probably closer to:
im-meeh-táht-see-oh
The t+s from the tip of your tongue
=================
At that time Cicero ["Little pea", maybe "Pee-wee"]
was, I think, still pronounceed by the upper ten as:
Keeh-keh-roh
with k's from the tip of your tongue
and by the pleps:
Seeh-ser-oh
with s-es from she tip of your tongue,
and certainly not even a bit of z.
--
Evertjan.
The Netherlands.
(Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress)
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