Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Continental pronunciation \Continental pronunciation\ (of Latin
   and Greek.)
   A method of pronouncing Latin and Greek in which the vowels
   have their more familiar Continental values, as in German and
   Italian, the consonants being pronounced mostly as in
   English. The stricter form of this method of pronouncing
   Latin approaches the Roman, the modified form the English,
   pronunciation. The Continental method of Greek pronunciation
   is often called Erasmian.