Sunday, 4 July 2010
progredite igitur corde Haruardniano
Mary Anne Marks delivers the Latin salutatory at Harvard's 2010 commencement ceremonies. I was worried at first with the number of saluETE's and the arm waving, but it gets better and is a good oration. It is good to see such a tradition maintained.
The pronunciation is that favoured in English and US classical faculties and schools rather than the Italianate imposed by Pope St Pius X. I don't really think there is a good reason for that uniformity; and neither did Fr Adrian Fortescue.
H/T Thomas Peters at Catholic Vote Action
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6 comments:
I do believe this woman intends to join the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, Michigan:
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/05/commence-wonderment/
Many thanks for unearthing that, Gillineau.
The pronunciation is that favoured in English and US classical faculties and schools rather than the Italianate imposed by Pope St Pius X.
Pope St. Pius X imposed an Italianate pronunciation? I thought it was the natural way of speaking it. Latin originated in Italy, and no one even in Latinium (Campania), Italy, nor even in the most remote, isolated regions has a dialect that sounds like the "classical" pronunciation of Latin. Who invented this "classical" pronunciation? I have always wondered that.
I don't really think there is a good reason for that uniformity; and neither did Fr Adrian Fortescue.
What did he think? Thanks
Just checking up, it seems that Pius X did not impose the pronunciation of Latin more romano but encouraged it. Pius XI earnestly desired that everyone should adopt it. Fortescue stuck with the classical pronunciation and taught it to his choir because he thought that such Italian uniformity was overstepping the mark in liturgical legislation. (He was not a fan of the Roman Curia.)
The classical pronunciation was the result of a struggle in England to ditch the older English pronunciation which is ridiculous (prima facie - pryma fayshee; sine die - synee dyee etc.) I did hear Harold MacMillan use this pronunciation at Encaenia at Oxford and it was fun but rather ludicrous.
The classical pronunciation is a good guess at how Latin was pronounced at the time of Cicero with the hard c and g etc. Of course the pronunciation of the vowels will differ from country to country as people impose their own way of making vowel sounds.
There is evidence that around the end of the silver Latin period (IIRC) the soft consonants were beginning to come into use, so the Roman pronunciation does have some solid basis in what we might call "living Latin".
Personally, I use the Roman pronunciation in the Liturgy as far as the soft consonants and the length of vowels are concerned but I don't try to reproduce an Italian accent. Even though I can speak Italian reasonably well and with a fairly good accent, I think it sounds silly for an English priest to overdo this when using Latin.
Latin originated in Italy, and no one even in Latinium (Campania), Italy, nor even in the most remote, isolated regions has a dialect that sounds like the "classical" pronunciation of Latin.
Actually there is: Sardinian, the plossives c and g have mostly preserved the hard sound before i and e, unlike the rest of the Romance languages.
Actually there is: Sardinian, the plossives c and g have mostly preserved the hard sound before i and e, unlike the rest of the Romance languages.
This is true! When I was in Umbria a native there told me that Sardinian is completely incomprehensible to her. I have also heard Sardinian is the most like Latin in that its phonology is the most conservative.
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