Ch 1 · Lesson 2Latin · Chapter 1 · Lesson 2 · Grammar primer
The alphabet: 23 letters, no J, no U, no W
The alphabet as the Romans wrote it, why I and V do double duty, and what vowel length changes. Read this once and Latin spelling never surprises you again.
The short version
No J, no U, no W
IVLIVS = Julius; VINVM = , wine
Why?Hide
The Romans wrote 23 letters. I did double duty as vowel and consonant, and so did V - which is why inscriptions read IVLIVS where a modern textbook prints Julius. When you see j and u in your Latin book, you are reading editorial kindness, not Roman spelling.
Classical C is always k, and V sounds like w
, , - WAY-nee, WEE-dee, WEE-kee
Why?Hide
In classical pronunciation C is always hard - Cicero is KI-ke-ro - and consonant V sounds like English w, so runs WAY-nee WEE-dee WEE-kee. Church Latin softens both; this course's speaks classical, and now you know which is which.
That's the gist. The full article goes deeper - more examples, the edge cases, the why - and the practice below scores like a vocabulary session and earns the same XP.
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Lesson 2 of 42 in this chapter