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Old 07-14-2002, 01:23 AM
dekeguy dekeguy is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Virginia and London
Posts: 1,025
I have been watching this with a smile. For those of us who joyfully (or not) suffered through Latin at School or College, you will remember that Latin pronunciation is never a simple thing and its hard to say who is right or wrong unless it is for use of Latin in a very specific situation. There are several "right" pronounciations among which should be counted:
Ecclesiastical Latin (Church Latin)
Classical Latin
Medievil Latin
Oxford Latin
Legal Latin
All of these vary widely in their pronounciation and all can be viewed as correct within certain usages. Remember that in British schoolboy Latin (essentially classical Latin) Julius Caesar's great boast "I came, I saw, I conquered", "Veni, Vedi, Vici", is pronounced "weenie, weedie, weekie"!!! The great orator Cicero is classically pronounced 'Kee Ka Row"!
And who can forget in "De Bello Galico" (Carsar's Gallic Wars) that Publius Flavius, Preator of the XIIth. Legion, before joining battle bolted to his tent where he thrust his glaudius into a vagina! You will understand of course that this meant he put his sword into a scabbard so he could carry it into the fight.
For purposes of this thread, it seems to me that if we remember to use the masc. form for male alumni, and the fem. form for female alumnae it really doesn't matter too much which of the several "right" pronounciations we choose to use.
Perhaps the opening line of Cicero's Cataline Oration might be appropriate here, "Quo usque tandem, Cateline..." which can be translated as "Hay Cataline, how far do you want to push this?"

AVE ATQUE VALE!!!
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