Latin pronunciation 101

There is no ‘correct’ way of pronouncing Latin. Latin pronunciation has varied considerably through time and place. What is important for choral singing, however, is consistency. If all singers adopt the same pronunciation, the resulting sound is far brighter and clearer. The beauty of singing in Latin as opposed to English is that it is ‘accent-neutral’: it is far easier to take on pronunciation for a language of which we are not already used to speaking in our own individual ways.

As such, adopting Italianate pronunciation, which has become prevalent in choral singing, works well for this general purpose. The sounds of Italianate Latin are similar to those of modern Italian, which has famously pure and open vowels (with no dipthongs) that are easy to sing, and easy to read phonetically.

Further details about this article is available to our choir members.  Why not come along and join one of our choirs, or even pop along to a rehearsal to see what goes on. There really is no pressure to sing and we don’t hold auditions. For more information on how to access this article or how to join one of our choirs, please visit join singhealthychoirs