Lucus Eques wrote:... CAUE NE EAS becoming CAU NEAS is a great
example of Latin's transition between consonantal and vocalic U.
In the very word itself, cauÄ“re, the supine is cautus. Perhaps
you would insist that this is an archaic remanent where
consonantal U was still like English W. Yet we see in Cicero's
very jest that, at least in Latin during the Classical period,
consonantal U was still close to vocalic U, and likely the same
as English W. Lucus, "likely the same" is as wishful as some of
Ellis's "convictions". I'm interested in the phonetic logic that
converts the U vocalic into a W consonantal sound. I've found
that it is certainly not necessary to shift the pronunciation so
far forward as English W. And in the end I simply do not like
the sound of English W applied to Latin consonantal U. It sounds
out of place to my ears. However, I must admit that I have never
heard an ancient Roman speaking, so I could be totally wrong.
This discussion has me thinking about the various pronunciations
Latin must