Resources for pronouncing Latin

Question

What resources are out there for learning to pronounce Latin? Latin was pronounced differently in different places and eras, so resources for any part of the spatiotemporal realm of Latin are welcome. When you propose a resource, please explain what it contains (instructions, audio recordings, what kind of Latin, …) and if there are benefits and drawbacks one should know.

Please give only one course per answer. If you have many courses to suggest, give multiple answers—but read the other answers to avoid duplicating answers. This way people can vote on individual courses, causing the best ones to rise up and the worst ones to sink down, so that we can easily find the most useful resources. If there are many courses listed in an answer, it's hard to link the answer score to the quality of each listed course.

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Answer 1

Vox Latina by W. Sidney Allen (2nd edition, 1978) is the standard book for pronouncing not just Classical Latin, but noted variants, as well. The book is a companion to Vox Graeca, and is a reconstruction of how it would be pronounced according to a variety of sources.

While it's a work of scholarship, it's easily accessible to undergraduates and other serious beginners.

Answer 2

One resource for learning Latin pronunciation is Nuntii Latini, the Finnish Latin news broadcast. The pronunciation is very clear and the news items are also available as plain text, making it easy compare the written and spoken word. When the show is not on a winter or summer break, it produces 5 minutes of news every week.

It is not presented as study material, but it does fit in that role. I enjoy the fact that it's not artificial stories for the sake of learning Latin, but actual news items simply delivered through the medium of Latin. However, the words are not pronounced slowly and one at a time nor are there any pronunciation instructions. But if you like learning by imitation, I recommend this as a part of your Latin hobby.

The Latin used there is the contemporary Latin pronunciation in Finland (excluding Turku). I believe the pronunciation is supposed to follow classical pronunciation of the early Roman Empire. I described this pronunciation in my answer to a question on contemporary local Latin pronunciation. And if you catch me speaking Latin in public, the accent will be very close to that of Nuntii Latini.

Answer 3

For Ecclesiastical Latin, I am using audio published by Familiae Sancti Hieronomi, a religious community with a special charism for the Latin language:

http://www.hieronymus.us.com/Venalia/IndLatin.htm

My experience is with their Cursus and their recording of the book of Psalms.

These are specifically Ecclesiastical Latin materials, which is great if that is what you are looking for, so you get ecclesiastical pronunciation and texts. Also, I find the pronunciation rather convincing. (I can think of only one voice that has a rather thick American accent.)

The production quality will be lower than you expect: plan for some hiss and tracks at widely divergent volume levels. Oh, and there is no way to sample the audio, it is on CD only, and they have no way to take credit cards! Caveat emptor!

Answer 4

Here's a new opportunity with regard to Ecclesiastical Latin.

On June 8, 2019, Vatican Radio started broadcasting Hebdomada Papae, notitiae vaticanae latine redditae (The Pope's week in review: Vatican news bulletin in Latin), a 5-minute weekly news bulletin airing every Saturday.

The programme is curated by Alessandro De Carolis, head of Vatican Radio, and results from the collaboration between Vatican Radio journalists and the Vatican Secretariat of Latin Letters, which already draws up official documents in Latin and manages the pope's Latin language Twitter account. See here for more info.

On the English version of the Vatican News website you can find all the broadcasts, and on the Italian one there are also transcriptions and translations in Italian. Note that as of now the Italian version of the website is the only one having these, they haven't been uploaded on the others (yet?).

Answer 5

Another resource for Ecclesiastical Latin. Every day the Vatican Radio transmits some of the "hours" of the Divine Office (also called Liturgy of the Hours) in Latin. These are the Lauds, Vespers, Compline (there is also the Rosary in Latin). These are Catholic prayers but might be helpful for learning because of two reasons:

1. The prayers, psalms and readings vary every day

2. The Latin texts and English translations of each prayer are freely available in many places online. My favourite is this one (available also as a [paid] smartphone app). To use, select one of the "hours", and select Latin and English at the end. Example for Lauds here.