Latin pronunciation, both in the classical and post-classical age, has varied across different regions and different eras. Latin still in use today is often pronounced differently in various regions of the world. The Roman alphabet or Latin alphabet was adapted from an Etruscan alphabet, to represent the phonemes of the Latin language. ... Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD...

While it impossible to know exactly how Latin was pronounced centuries ago, singers and choirs in especially Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music often use what little is known to produce as authentic Latin as possible. Harry Belafonte singing, photograph by C. van Vechten Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, which is often contrasted with speech. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance, approximately 1400 to 1600. ... Baroque music describes an era and a set of styles of European classical music which were in widespread use between approximately 1600 and 1750 (see Dates of classical music eras for a discussion of the problems inherent in defining the beginning and end points). ... The authentic performance movement is an effort on the part of musicians and scholars to perform works of classical music in ways similar to how they were performed when they were originally written. ...

The following table shows the main differences between different regions with the International Phonetic Alphabet. This is far from a complete listing and lacks the local variations exhibited through centuries, but should give an outline of main characteristics of different regions. Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...

In ecclesiastical use, these regional varieties were, and to a great extent still are, in use, although the Italian model is increasingly advocated and usually followed even for speakers of English, sometimes with slight variations. The official version is that given in the Liber Usualis. This book prescribes a silent "h", except in the two words "mihi" and "nihil", which are pronounced /miki/ and /nikil/ (this is not universally followed). Some English singers choose to pronounce "h" as /h/ for extra clarity, although this is not strictly correct. Classical Latin is the language used by the principal exponents of that language in what is usually regarded as classical Latin literature. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages (including English, German Dutch) and the East Germanic languages (now extinct). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Liber usualis is a book of commonly-used Gregorian chants compiled by the monks of the Abbey of Solesmes in France. ...

See also

• Latin spelling and pronunciation
• Authentic performance

The Roman alphabet or Latin alphabet was adapted from an Etruscan alphabet, to represent the phonemes of the Latin language. ... The authentic performance movement is an effort on the part of musicians and scholars to perform works of classical music in ways similar to how they were performed when they were originally written. ...

References/further reading

• Benedictines Of Solesmes, ed. Liber Usualis with introduction and rubrics in English. Great Falls, Montana: St. Bonaventure Publ., 1997.
• McGee, Timothy J. with A G. Rigg and David N. Klausner, eds. Singing Early Music. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1996.