Lukaszd, I am not saying that comparing phonemes is the only method of education. Bobyoungbalt brought up the point that there were several books that had been written that covered pronunciation to which I say that it is evident that the books available were evidently not written clearly enough to give an accurate, no-argument, answer as to the pronunciation of words.
This is clearly demonstrated when you say you find the English pronunciation of Latin words barbaric. It is also demonstrated in the fact that some letter pronunciations have changed every so often (witness the C and V). Since everyone is using the same books and no new ones have been found to clarify the situation, neither in the written or graphic format, it is left to the readers (or modern scholars) to interpret. And it is because it is left up to interpretation that we find such variances. There is no way you can prove that YOUR pronunciation is correct, but the English (or anybody else) cannot prove that THEIR pronunciation is correct either.
AnnaS is right. There are no tapes!
