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In my dictionary enuntio is first conjugation verb,

enuntio, avi, are

Now in Spinoza there came up this word - 'enunciatum', which is said to be (source - Wictionary) coming from enuntio, as alternative form of 'enuntiatus', Perfect passive participle of ēnuntiō.

I haven't noticed such a changes before, is it common in new Latin?

Aili J.
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2 Answers2

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This is very common, in fact. In Medieval and later Latin, both C and T before I and E (and thus also AE and OE) softened the dentals (probably into /ts/ but perhaps even /tʃ/, English's "ch" sound.

This then led a number of places where in Latin there was a T to turn into a C, such as racio for ratio or vicium for vitium, leading to the derivative vice.

Many of the changes are detailed under Medieval Latin orthography guides, such as Mantello & Rigg's.

cmw
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    In current ecclesiastical pronunciation, c before e-i-oe-ae becomes /tʃ/ while t before i + vowel (e.g. -tio, -tium, -tia) becomes /ts/. – brianpck Jan 02 '17 at 19:30
  • In Italian the word is enunciato (with /tʃ/, means ‘statement’); similarly, renuntiare gave rinunziare (with /ts/, formal written language, not used any longer in speech) and the more common rinunciare. To the contrary, vitium gave vizio (with /ts/) and ratio/rationem gave ragione. – egreg Jan 10 '17 at 09:35
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The usual school pronunciation of Latin in Germany is that ci + vowel and ti + vowel are both realised as /tsi/.

fdb
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