# Does anyone know how Roman numerals were pronounced? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 24, 2024, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-how-roman-numerals-were-pronounced/1007672 "2024-09-24T17:19:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2024, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-how-roman-numerals-were-pronounced/1007672/81 "2024-11-19T03:24:59Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > As has been mentioned, the system doesn’t lend itself well to arithmetic. I recall reading once that if you needed multiplication done, you’d pay an expert who had big tables that they’d consult Numberphile recently did an episode about people first encountering the Arabic system and a document that maps Roman to Arabic systems. They mention that people at the time were astonished that there were traders about to do arithmetic in their minds; it was like a superpower. So it is indeed not the case that the Roman system was adequate for this use, only that they didn’t have an alternative. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/OEGGz1sCS5w/maxresdefault.jpg "The Change from Roman Numerals - Numberphile") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEGGz1sCS5w) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-how-roman-numerals-were-pronounced/1007672/82 "2024-11-20T12:17:13Z")
No sweat: Unway Ootay Eethray Orfay Ivefay ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2024, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-how-roman-numerals-were-pronounced/1007672/83 "2024-11-20T13:41:24Z")
That’s how the numbers were pronounced in Latin. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2024, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-how-roman-numerals-were-pronounced/1007672/84 "2024-11-25T19:01:39Z")
I think it’s within the realm of possibility that Romans did say things like once in a while, if only to try to sound clever. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2024, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-how-roman-numerals-were-pronounced/1007672/85 "2024-11-26T21:19:09Z")
So do we know how the Romans pronounced the names of the letters? If a Roman asked a friend how to write the number fifty-four, how would the friend reply? ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-how-roman-numerals-were-pronounced/1007672/86 "2024-11-27T01:11:45Z")
Does the question really come down to “Did the Romans have names for the letters of the alphabet they used? And, if so, did they have different names for those letters when they were used as numerals?” According to the Wikepedia article on the Latin alphabet, the Romans did have names for their letters. I was “i”, pronounced like the vowel sound in “sweet”; V was “u”, pronounced like the vowel sound in “shoot”; X was “ix”, pronounced “iks”; L was “el”, pronounced pretty much as you would expect; M was “em”, pronounced likewise; C was “ce”, pronounced with a hard ‘c’ and the vowel sound from “dress”; D was “de”, also with the vowel sound from “dress”. There must be a degree of conjecture about the pronunciations; there must have been some degree of variation both over time and in different places. Wikipedia doesn’t discuss whether the letter were given different names when used as numerals, but there seems no obvious reason why this would have been done. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-how-roman-numerals-were-pronounced/1007672/87 "2024-11-27T19:36:04Z")
> [@UDS1](#): > > Does the question really come down to “Did the Romans have names for the letters of the alphabet they used? And, if so, did they have different names for those letters when they were used as numerals?” I kinda thought that was what the OP was asking? ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2024, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-how-roman-numerals-were-pronounced/1007672/88 "2024-11-29T16:23:05Z")
Roman numerals were originally not derived from, nor related to, the letters that they eventually became associated with. I would expect that before the numerals became associated with letters, the symbols for the numerals would not have been pronounced like the letter names. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-how-roman-numerals-were-pronounced/1007672/89 "2024-11-30T04:30:43Z")
Check the link in Post 6 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-know-how-roman-numerals-were-pronounced/1007672.md?page=4)