How a language was pronounced by diverse ethnicities of different levels of education throughout a massive empire 2000 years ago cannot be determined with 100% certainty. Even the English language today in the UK can be pronounced differently in different towns let alone worldwide. However, there is a standard Classical Latin pronunciation which is used when learning the language.
Latin has five vowels: /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u/ and one borrowed vowel /y/; the /y/, similar to German ü or French 'tu', was not a sound native to Latin speakers and initially used in the spelling of foreign words.
These vowels can be either short or long; in Latin text books the long vowels are marked by a line above them which is known as a macron: ā ē ī ō ū
The first point to note is that the macron sign was not used in Classical Latin writing; it is a feature added to assist in correct pronunciation, and you should not be too concerned at the outset about differentiating between the long and short vowels; that will come with practice by saying the words aloud.
[1] long Ā ¦ like a in father: māter (mother)
[2] short A ¦ like u in cup, but: casa (cottage)
[3] long Ē ¦ like a in save: cēna (dinner)
[4] short E ¦ like e in bed: penna (feather)
[5] long Ī ¦ like ee in bee: : sīdus (star)
[6] short I ¦ like i in pig: vēritās (truth)
[7] long Ō ¦ like o in drove: nōn (not)
[8] short O ¦ like o in pot: collis (hill)
[9] long Ū ¦ like oo in food: mūs (mouse)
[10] short U ¦ like u in put: portus (harbour)
[11] long Ȳ ¦ like u in French tu or German ü: Dionȳsus (name: Dionysus)
[12] short Y ¦ same as long ȳ, just slightly shorter: Aegyptus (Egypt)
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