This site is a quick sketch, nothing more. The pronunciations given here are not authoritative because they cannot be. They are how an American of the 21st century would pronounce them and would not be considered "wrong" by other 21st century Americans.
The site grew out of a suggestion and conversation on the mediev-l discussion list in February 2003. The original suggestion came from William A. Verdone and was seconded by Al Magary and Skip Knox. Skip had a bunch of files already, and so he offers them up as a first contribution.
The list at this point must look odd. It's an agglomeration of files for my Western Civ site, supplemented with files from my courses on the Renaissance and the Crusades. Additions are quite welcome, but you have to send me the sound file. I'll take it from there. sknox@boisestate.edu
Spelling is going to be an issue, as is alphbetization. Let's try to keep that a side-issue for now, but do tell me where I've made an obvious error, including incorrect diacriticals. I'm sure I've got a few wrong. Also tell me if I've linked the wrong word to the wrong sound file. I'm pretty sure I've normalized all these files, so the sound levels ought to be consistent. Let me know if one isn't. I already know that some are .mp3 and some are .wav and that there are level differences there. Maybe I'll fix that one day.
Do tell me if I have the pronunciation completely wrong. Beyond that, if this project actually goes forward, we shall have to work out a system for including alternate pronunciations. Until then, see the first paragraph for the standard used here.
end of list as of 12 Feb. 2003