Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Will Parsons <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>]

On Sat, 13 Jul 2013 21:12:55 -0400, Barry <nebarry AT verizon.net> wrote:
> On 7/13/2013 7:53 PM, Jerry Shepherd wrote:> (2) You rightly state,
>  > ...
>  > Perhaps one of the Latin experts on the list, Barry Hofstetter could
>  > chime in and give us his take on this.
>
> It is generally moderns who wish to reconstruct authentic pronunciation
> of ancient languages, and mostly, in my experience, in America. I had a
> professor in graduate school who did work at the Sorbonne. He stated
> that they laughed at his pronunciation, and simply pronounced the words
> as though they were French. Of course, everything sounds better in
> French -- ask any Frenchman (is that term still politically
> acceptable?). I have no doubt that an 11th century French speaker would
> have pronounced Latin filtered through medieval French.

I'm kind of surprised at that - I would have thought that by now that
an attempt at a Classical pronunciation would be the norm even in
France.  But I believe you are right about the transition to the "new"
pronunciation taking place in America sooner than it did in e.g.,
England.

-- 
Will Parsons