Expert: Maria - 12/15/2007

Question
Ok, that you for the answer on the courage question. Now I have the problem of not being able to pronounce the word "Virtus". Is there any way you could help with this?

Answer
Hello,

Here’s the pronunciation of VIRTUS:

V like the V in ‘vase’.
I like the  EE in ‘queen’. The accent stands on this vowel
R like the R in ‘person’
T like the T  in “time”
U like the OO in ‘good’/ 'look'.
S like the S in ‘special’

Bye,
Maria
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As for the pronunciation of the letter V in Latin, this is a really  "vexata quaestio" , i.e  a subject of disagreement among the scholars.
To summarize, we can say that there are two ways of pronunciation of this letter:

1-the school pronunciation of the Latin language which dates back to the Middle  Ages and is deep-rooted now.  
In this case the letter  V   is pronounced like 'V' in 'Vase', as I’ve already written.

2- the perhaps most likely pronunciation of Classical Latin.  In this case the letter  V  should  be pronounced as  'W'  in  'Wine' or “OO” in “look”.
This thesis is corroborated by the Greek transcription of the Latin terms which began with a "V" or  had the letter "V".  See for example the Latin word VIMINALIS (in Latin, ‘Viminalis collis’ = Viminal hill), which becomes OUIMINALIS in Greek as  'OU' sounds in Greek like "W" in English.

Finally note that  Latin “V“ was capital letter, while “u” ( which seems to be  introduced  later) was small letter for the same sound, i.e. “u” as “oo” in “look” or as “w” in “Wine”.
So the Romans wrote “CONSVL” in capital letters  and “consul” in small letters as well as  “VINVM” and  “uinum”, for example.