Latin phonology is the system of sounds used in various kinds of Latin. This article largely deals with what features can be deduced for Classical Latin as it was spoken by the educated from the late Roman Republic to … 展开

In Classical spelling, individual letters mainly corresponded to individual phonemes (alphabetic principle). Exceptions include:
1. The letters ⟨a e i o u y⟩, each of which could represent either a short vowel or a long one. The long … 展开

Where one word ended with a vowel (including the nasalized vowels written am em im um~(om) and the diphthong ae) and the next word began with a vowel, the former vowel, at least in … 展开

As Classical Latin developed to Late Latin, and eventually into the modern Romance languages, it experienced several phonological changes. Notable changes include the following (the … 展开

Nature of the accent
Although some French and Italian scholars believe that the classical Latin accent was purely a pitch accent, which had no effect on the placing of words in a line of poetry, the view of most scholars is that the accent was a stress … 展开

Spelling
Letters
Modern usage, even for classical Latin texts, varies in respect of I … 展开

The following examples are both in verse, which demonstrates several features more clearly than prose.
From Classical Latin
Virgil's Aeneid, Book 1, verses 1–4. Quantitative metre (dactylic hexameter). Translation: "I sing of … 展开