Latin Mass Pronunciation

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Hey_Jude_1994

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Hi all!
I recently began serving at our parish’s weekly High Latin Mass.
Sadly, I butcher a lot of the beautiful prayers said by the server 😦 Does anyone know of any good pronunciation guides for Latin that I could use? Online guides would be preferable, but I’m also willing to purchase one!

Thanks so much 🙂
 
If you have ever taken a Spanish class, that can give you sort of an idea of how to pronounce vowels, mainly, in ecclesiastical Latin, but consonants are usually a bit harder-sounding.
 
Italian is the best guide as it’s the same pronunciation in almost every way. I always tell people who are trying to pronounce words in the Latin languages that the vowels are the most important thing. If you get the vowels down you’ll sound competent 90% of the time.

a - ah
e - eh
i - ee
o - oh
u - oo

Just remember that.

Also, in most instances c = a ch sound.
unless it’s chi which sounds like key e.g. chianti 🙂
tio = ts ee oh. Sounds like zio in Italian.
tia = ts ee ah. Sounds like zia in Italian.

There are others, but you learn as you go.

Example:
Gloria in excelsis deo
Gl oh r ee ah
ee n
eh x ch eh l see s
Deh o

Ave Maria, gratia plena dominus tecum
Ah v eh
M ah r ee ah
Gr ah ts ee ah
pl eh n ah
d oh m ee n oo s
t eh c oo m

If you want, find some chant CDs (make sure they don’t sound like people singing with American accents!) and learn the chants and learn to sing along with them. It’s a great way to nail down the pronunciation and you learn some wonderful prayers/hymns :D.
 
Sorry error with the c thing. C = k sound like kite. C with I or e makes ch.
 
I’m in training now as a backup server and I use a little white book called “How to Serve Low Mass & Benediction.”

It has all the pronunciations, plus great illustrations on how to move around the sancuatary according to the rubrics.

Check it out.
 
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