I recently attended the funeral at the London Oratory of a friend, killed in an accident aged only 47. The baroque magnificence of the Oratory was appropriate for the deep seriousness of death – as was the Latin Mass.
I have never heard Latin spoken so beautifully as it was by Fr Julian Large that morning. He spoke from memory, with such fluency and confidence, that it was the closest I’ve ever got to hearing how, I think, the Romans actually talked.
No one knows the precise way the Romans spoke. You can work out the length of their vowels – whether they’re long or short – from the metre of certain poems. But as for actual pronunciation, it’s anyone’s guess.
