Unit 1 - d. Syllabication

For some reason syllabication really trips me up.  I mispronounce things wildly at times!  I need to hear a lot of Latin to really get this.  But this time I am going to go through and write, in my own words, how syllabication works in Latin.

First of all the general rule is that in a two syllable word the penult or second to last syllable gets the accent.  So:  cē/na (pronounced chay/nah - means dinner)

Three syllable words are trickier so I will get to them later.

First, how do you know what makes a syllable in Latin?  Here are some rules:

A Latin word has as many syllables as it has vowels (or diphthongs)

1) We divide after an open vowel (those vowels not followed by a consonant) as in the word pi/us

2) Or those vowels followed by a single consonant as in the word vi/ta or ho/ra

3)  When two consonants are together, we divide after the first consonant as in the words mis/sa and san/ctus

Back to accents.  The length of a syllable (whether it has a long or short vowel sound in it) determines where the accent is in a word of 3 or more syllables.

A syllable is long if it contains a long vowel or a diphthong.

A syllable can also be long in terms of accent if the short vowel in it is followed by 2+ consonants or double consonants.  However, you still pronounce the vowel with its short sound.  So the word for Mass in Latin is missa.  Missa is a world that has a short i sound followed by a double consonant.  That means that the accent is on the penult syllable but the i sound is still short.  Missa not mīssa.

Clear as mud?  It gets worse.

The penult syllable is the boss of how the accent falls on the word.  If you have a 3 or more syllable word and the penult is long, then you put the accent there as in doc/trI/na or an/cI/la.

But if that penult is short, then the accent moves to the antepenult (or the 3rd from last syllable) as in the word angelus.  Say angelus like you would in the sentence:  It is time to pray the Angelus.

You just put the accent on the first syllable.  If you put it on the penult it would have sounded like an/GEL/us.

I am not going to get into the more complicated things Collins says about mute consonants and liquid ones, etc.

Note:  Traditional Latin missals and breviaries don't use the macron but use accent signs instead.

One last rule:

Consonant sequences of:  nf, ns, nx, nct and often gn cause a preceding vowel to lengthen. Examples:  nf = īnferus

ns = cōnsecrō

nx = conjūnx

nct = sānctus

gn = dīgnus (but not always; in magnus the a is short)

Here is a link to Ecclesiastical pronunciation and if you scroll down they spell out exactly how to pronounce the sign of the cross (Signum Crucis) and the Doxology.

Here is another site that lets you hear the pronunciation of the prayers of the rosary at either a slow or fast speed.  A nice resource!

For me personally, reading the syllabication rules doesn't really help.  Listening to proper pronunciation and then trying to replicate, does.