latin pronunciation

[John Grehan]

>With a Caribbean wife and an extensive knowledge of Spanish pronunciation,
>but without a formal education in Latin, I have found it often embarassing
>to attempt verbal references using the scientific names.  It seems we have
>all developed our own Latin pronunciation rules, and unless we're fortunate
>enough to choose that which is generally accepted as being correct - we're
>speaking a different language.
>
>I'm fairly certain that the actual rules of Latin are rather tightly
>defined, but I'm not sure that we're all following them.
>
>Is there a pronunciation guide out there somewhere?  Is it _correct_?
>
>Mark Walker.

A discussion along these lines recently came up on the TAXACOM server,
any my recollection of the contributions was that there are "rules" but
they may
vary among different languages/cultures, and since no one here was around at the
time of Cicero etc., no one really knows.

I never lose sleep over it.

John Grehan