First, Do No Linguistic Harm

May 23, 2008 1:37 PM

How do you pronounce the Latin phrase "primum succurrere"? My best guess would be something like "PREE-moom soo-koo-RAY-ray". But I totally have no idea. Anyone care to throw me a lifeline on this one? It's much, MUCH easier to be pretentious about using a phrase in Latin if you're not mispronouncing it. ;O)
posted by AngerBoy to writing & language (13 comments total)

I'd pronounce it like you suggested or the slightly different: PREE-moom soo-kuh-RAY-ray (kuh instead of koo). I'd also roll the Rs because it sounds MUCH better that way :)
posted by odi.et.amo at 1:45 PM on May 23, 2008

(Latin pronounciation credentials are 4 years in high school plus lots of church choir Latin)
posted by odi.et.amo at 1:48 PM on May 23, 2008

AngerBoy, you've got it right according to my credentials as well (which are, incidentally, exactly the same as odi.et.amo's).
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 1:50 PM on May 23, 2008

slight amendation to odi.et.amo's pronunciation: try suh-coo-REY-reh. Succurrere is from sub (under)+currere (to run), with the b becoming a second c to ease pronunciation. I've always learned 'sub' to be a soob sound, rather than our English suh-b, as in submarine.

A good rule of thumb with Latin: pronounce everything you see in the word. And to give it a bit of flair, you can add a shade of Italian accent to it - it sounds more impressive, and is likely more correct than a basic rendering of sounds.
posted by AthenaPolias at 2:13 PM on May 23, 2008

I don't know any latin but in modern Italian, I'd guess that the ere at the end would be the infinitive so the second would be sooKEHrehreh
posted by moof at 2:14 PM on May 23, 2008

(oops, forgot credentials - BA & MA in the classical field, working on PhD. I'm no Latinist, but I've done a fair bit of it in the course of my work.)
posted by AthenaPolias at 2:14 PM on May 23, 2008

4 years of high school Latin tells me you're correct. Also, not to say that church choir Latin is wrong all of the time, but they did tend to change some of the pronunciation on words (v as "vuh" instead of "wuh," like in proper Latin.)
posted by InsanePenguin at 3:30 PM on May 23, 2008

Also remember that we don't have any recordings of Latin as it was spoken "back then". If someone tries to put down your pronunciation just remind them of that!
posted by phliar at 3:48 PM on May 23, 2008

like phliar said, I can't see how anyone could claim to really know how Latin was originally enunciated or pronounced - I believe it's what is known as a "dead language" (feel free to smack this down, AthenaPolias)

a mushroom hunter once told me that the correct way to pronounce any Latin term was "authoritatively"
posted by jammy at 4:56 PM on May 23, 2008

No correct answers so far (and really, vague memories of high school courses don't qualify one to answer questions like this): the verb is soo-KOO-reh-reh (or, if you want to be closer to the true pronunciation, soo-KOOR-reh-reh, with a perceptibly doubled Italian-style r). It's a third-conjugation verb, with short penultimate e (like gerō, gerere), not a second-conjugation one with long (and therefore stressed ē (like doceō, docēre).

I can't see how anyone could claim to really know how Latin was originally enunciated or pronounced

And yet we do know very well how it was pronounced. See W. Sidney Allen's Vox Latina: A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin.
posted by languagehat at 5:27 PM on May 23, 2008 [5 favorites]

I pronounce that jammy has been authoritatively smacked down.
posted by gentilknight at 8:22 PM on May 23, 2008

Deeply grateful for the insightful answers, and for the extra helping of snark thrown in for free.

I knew I was in good company here. Language dorks FTW! :O)
posted by AngerBoy at 8:58 PM on May 23, 2008

interesting, languagehat - thanks for the info & the reference

being smacked down authoritatively is edumacational!
posted by jammy at 5:49 AM on May 24, 2008