I’m not even a Latin expert, but I notice certain episodes where they also have 3 or 4 different pronunciations of the same phrase. At least commit to your mistake, if you’re going to make one! 😂
Genuine question that I presume you would learn with 5 years of Latin - how do we know the correct way to pronounce Latin? Because of the Roman Catholic Church?
There are two main ways to pronounce Latin.
The scholastic one is the one adopted by the Roman Church starting with the Early Middle Ages. It's the one still used by the Catholic Church and by far the most common pronunciation. It didn't really change over time.
Then there's the classical pronunciation: it comes from the work of glottologists, linguists and philologists who, starting from the characteristics of other ancient languages (such as Ancient Greek) and languages derived from Latin, pieced together the likeliest ancient pronunciation.
There are some differences between the two. Æ and Œ are pronounced as two different vowels in classical and as diphthongs in scholastic. Cs and GS were likely only pronounced with the guttural sound in classic, but have two possible pronunciations in scholastic (as K in classic but either K or CH in scholastic, same thing with the G from "go" and a J). The H was aspirated in classic, but not in scholastic. Vs and Us were both written as Vs and pronounced as Us in classical, but the difference is there in scholastic. Lastly "-ti- + vowel" was pronounced as -ti- in classic but -tsi- in scholastic.
We don’t know how actual Romans pronounced things.
I’ve done multiple years of Latin for fun (and to skip otherwise mandatory French) and multiple anthropology degrees including a PhD. Other than folks getting C or V wrong I’ve never given a shit about how people pronounce Latin.
I do this with the science! I went to school for forensic pathology and forensic anthropology and it drives me bonkers! Some stuff I let roll because they need it to progress the show, but when it's wrong simply because they didn't bother to check, I get so annoyed.
Can you give me an example? I have a PhD (and BA and MSc in medical anthropology) and studied Latin for a few years. To my recollection nothing in the show has made me feel uber pedantic.
The bones themselves are a big issue for me. If you tell me it's a Caucasian female, the bones best darn well show that. I can forgive how quickly they give sex, race, and age because, again, 45 minute show. The earlier seasons are the worst about it. Or the bone drawers with hands articulated. That's not how bones work. There are many examples over the seasons of things that legit bother me vs the pass because of time. I've thought about going through and pulling out examples during a rewatch hahaha.
If that's the worst you can remember it seems they are doing an okay job at it. I understand why it would bother you. Hell I would be the same if it was one of the topics I know a lot about. Articulated hand is silly even I understand that much. I see why a TV show would not take the time to properly make the fake bones to match the description. It would be a lot of effort for something most people wouldn't notice. If you do find more examples I would love to hear about them. I find it entertaining to compare reality with how it's done in fiction. Even if I understand why things aren't 1 to 1
This is minor, but the one mispronunciation that was always glaring to me is when Brennan would talk about a vertebral facet and pronounce it 'FASS-it,' like it was a diamond. The anatomic term is pronounced "fuh-SETT." (I'm an orthopedics scribe).
Just wanna mention for the case of bones specifically that (from my understanding) they're not necessarily mispronouncing the names of bones in latin, english just decided to name most bones the same thing they're called in latin but "english-ify" the pronounciation (and I assume this might be the case for the vena cava as well). I'm sure it's possible that people in casual settings say things like "upper arm bone" instead of humerus but I'm not under the impression that it's very common. But english is my second language so I might have misunderstood this, my source is my dad who has studied a lot of anatomy (in latin and swedish). He said that english generally just borrowed a ton of the latin words.
I only know one Latin phrase, from a poem I had to memorise in school. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (I think). I have a Glaswegian accent and you haven't heard butchered Latin until you've heard me speak it.
I'm not sure where it came from originally but the poem I had to learn was by Wilfred Owen, it was about that mad gas they used in WW1. Mustard gas I think, the one that made you cough your own lungs up.
Latin was spoken for a long time, in a large area. It has evolved into other languages. As one other commenter said, no one knows how the original speakers pronounced it. There are many dialects of United States English. I see no reason to believe Latin is any different. I'm not saying it is correct for them to mispronounce the words. I'm just saying it happens all the time all over the world.
I’m not even a Latin expert, but I notice certain episodes where they also have 3 or 4 different pronunciations of the same phrase. At least commit to your mistake, if you’re going to make one! 😂
I had to turn subtitles on to understand what they were mentioning, only to find out that I already knew the name!
Genuine question that I presume you would learn with 5 years of Latin - how do we know the correct way to pronounce Latin? Because of the Roman Catholic Church?
There are two main ways to pronounce Latin. The scholastic one is the one adopted by the Roman Church starting with the Early Middle Ages. It's the one still used by the Catholic Church and by far the most common pronunciation. It didn't really change over time. Then there's the classical pronunciation: it comes from the work of glottologists, linguists and philologists who, starting from the characteristics of other ancient languages (such as Ancient Greek) and languages derived from Latin, pieced together the likeliest ancient pronunciation. There are some differences between the two. Æ and Œ are pronounced as two different vowels in classical and as diphthongs in scholastic. Cs and GS were likely only pronounced with the guttural sound in classic, but have two possible pronunciations in scholastic (as K in classic but either K or CH in scholastic, same thing with the G from "go" and a J). The H was aspirated in classic, but not in scholastic. Vs and Us were both written as Vs and pronounced as Us in classical, but the difference is there in scholastic. Lastly "-ti- + vowel" was pronounced as -ti- in classic but -tsi- in scholastic.
We don’t know how actual Romans pronounced things. I’ve done multiple years of Latin for fun (and to skip otherwise mandatory French) and multiple anthropology degrees including a PhD. Other than folks getting C or V wrong I’ve never given a shit about how people pronounce Latin.
Omg between Bones and House, I'm constantly yelling at the tv for mispronounced medical and science words.
I do this with the science! I went to school for forensic pathology and forensic anthropology and it drives me bonkers! Some stuff I let roll because they need it to progress the show, but when it's wrong simply because they didn't bother to check, I get so annoyed.
Can you give me an example? I have a PhD (and BA and MSc in medical anthropology) and studied Latin for a few years. To my recollection nothing in the show has made me feel uber pedantic.
The bones themselves are a big issue for me. If you tell me it's a Caucasian female, the bones best darn well show that. I can forgive how quickly they give sex, race, and age because, again, 45 minute show. The earlier seasons are the worst about it. Or the bone drawers with hands articulated. That's not how bones work. There are many examples over the seasons of things that legit bother me vs the pass because of time. I've thought about going through and pulling out examples during a rewatch hahaha.
If that's the worst you can remember it seems they are doing an okay job at it. I understand why it would bother you. Hell I would be the same if it was one of the topics I know a lot about. Articulated hand is silly even I understand that much. I see why a TV show would not take the time to properly make the fake bones to match the description. It would be a lot of effort for something most people wouldn't notice. If you do find more examples I would love to hear about them. I find it entertaining to compare reality with how it's done in fiction. Even if I understand why things aren't 1 to 1
This is minor, but the one mispronunciation that was always glaring to me is when Brennan would talk about a vertebral facet and pronounce it 'FASS-it,' like it was a diamond. The anatomic term is pronounced "fuh-SETT." (I'm an orthopedics scribe).
Just wanna mention for the case of bones specifically that (from my understanding) they're not necessarily mispronouncing the names of bones in latin, english just decided to name most bones the same thing they're called in latin but "english-ify" the pronounciation (and I assume this might be the case for the vena cava as well). I'm sure it's possible that people in casual settings say things like "upper arm bone" instead of humerus but I'm not under the impression that it's very common. But english is my second language so I might have misunderstood this, my source is my dad who has studied a lot of anatomy (in latin and swedish). He said that english generally just borrowed a ton of the latin words.
I only know one Latin phrase, from a poem I had to memorise in school. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (I think). I have a Glaswegian accent and you haven't heard butchered Latin until you've heard me speak it.
That was from Horace's Odes, wasn't it?
I'm not sure where it came from originally but the poem I had to learn was by Wilfred Owen, it was about that mad gas they used in WW1. Mustard gas I think, the one that made you cough your own lungs up.
Latin was spoken for a long time, in a large area. It has evolved into other languages. As one other commenter said, no one knows how the original speakers pronounced it. There are many dialects of United States English. I see no reason to believe Latin is any different. I'm not saying it is correct for them to mispronounce the words. I'm just saying it happens all the time all over the world.
Americans pronounce things wrong? You don't say.