AdAltareDei wrote:
Anyone have a list of guidelines and/or a link to a syllabified Church Latin dictionary? I am interested not only in where the syllables are divided, but where stress is laid.
The rules in Latin are uniform and not at all difficult. You don't need a dictionary
There are as many syllables as vowels or diphthongs. Consonants belong to the syllable of the vowel after them, unless it is a double consonant, or no vowel left (ch, ph, and such of course are treated as one consonant, the same way æ is one vowel)
amicus. a-mi-cus
Cæsar-Cæ-sar
Esse- es-se
Michael- Mi-cha-el (In Israel, Michael, and many Hebrew words rendered in Latin a and e are separate vowels, usually indicated by ä)
Accenting is also very simple
The accent is always on the penultimate when that syllable is long. That is, the accent is on the syllable before the last whenever the syllable is long. A syllable is long either when it has a long vowel, or when it has two consonants "mentum". Men is long because it has the "n". But metum is different. Me would be long only if the e was long.
Take veritas. The "ri" is short, so v́́eritas, it would be verítas if ri were long. But Amamus is"aḿamus" because "ma" is long.
In ecclesiastical Latin the difference of long and short is merely the length of the sound, not the quality. And it comes naturally with practice "ri" just flows quickly, whereas "ma" sounds drawn out.
Now if the penultimate (second to last) is short, then the accent is on the third to last (ante-penultimate) syllable.
THE ONLY TWO CHOICES ARE THIRD TO LAST OR SECOND TO LAST. It is NEVER on the last syllable. EVER. Hence we can summarise it this way
1. If the word is two syllables, always on the first
2. If three or more, you only have to look at the pentultimate.
3. If long, then on the pentultimate
4. If short then on the antepentultimate
Syllables are long if
1. They have a long vowel (like a dipthong) or a double vowel like "au"
2. If they are followed by two consonants (like mittere, i is followed by two consonants so long, or miscere, again long, even though sc elides together) unless they form a single sound. "Michi". The "ch" is simply a k*. Or if the first consonant is a stop (think of p, b or k...you cannot just flowing them, they stop) and the second consonant is a liquid (r, l). tenebra...the "teh-ne.bra" Liquids are flowing like r's and l's (just take the word flowing...the f sound does not come to a hard stop by the l, but the flow together into the vowel)
3. They are also long if followed by a consonant that has a double sound ( "x" is 'ks', "z" is 'dz"...if you have proper pronunciation long and short will come natural here)
Again, the only hard part is long/short determination and that comes naturally if you have good pronunciation and a good ear.
