Ahmen or Aymen?

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Many years ago, I was taught “Ahmen” for Latin and “Aymen” for English by the Sister who was our music teacher/choir leader.
 
I say ahmen, priest says ahmen, about half of the congregation goes either way.

Its been my experience that the more ritualistic religions (Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, etc.) have a preference for ahmen, while less ritualistic religions have a preference for aymen.

The Latin pronunciation of “amen” is “ahmen,” not “aymen,” and since Latin masses are less prevalent now, I think we can blame the vowel shift at least partly on that. However, whenever I go to mass, the collective sound usually still stays “ahmen.”
Yup, is “ah-men”. The Aramaic I believe is “Amin”. In Ukrainian and Slavonic, its the same, “Amin”. I’ve been to a Chaldean Holy Qurbana and its “Amin”. The Latin is “Amen” and in Filipino we also say “Amen”. It seems only the English says “Ey-men”. That’s pretty telling given in every language its always “AH” instead of “EY”.
 
I am a convert to the Catholic church, and I was raised Fundamentalist Church of Christ and Baptist.

All the fundamentalists pronounced the word amen as aymen, if fact sometimes they would even shout AYMEN.

As soon as I graduated HS I looked for another church. At first I went Episcopal trying to keep peace in the family, since they are partly Catholic and partly Protestant. That failed since my family said “church of Christ or nothing”. Since I was already rejected by my folks I converted to Catholicism.

But in the Episcopal church I became accustomed to liturgy and saying ahmen and not shouting aymen.

The first thing that suprised me in the Catholic church was the people saying “aymen” just like the fundamentalists (minus the shouting).

The Cath Ch used to say ahmen, when and why the change? Did it have something to do with the switch from Latin? Aymen is supposed to be more “english”?

BTW I am too young to remember the EF Mass.
The use of the long A or short A has much more to do with the different registers of the English language than with liturgy or denominations.

In Latin and the Romance languages the A is short. People say, “Ahmen”.

However, in the English language, we have five different registers for the letter A.

Unless, you’re in a church where people are trying to duplicate the Latin with the short A, you will hear almost very register for the letter A in the English language. I’m from central VA, where we speak with a twang. So we say “Aayyyyymin”. I can’t quite find the correct way to type it. 🤷

My first assignment outside of the USA to an English speaking country was to Bath, England. They say “Ahmen” as if they had a Bahnahnah in their mouth. 😃 Travel up to Scottland and you hear a different version of the ah. It sounds almost Bostonian. Eahmen.

In places where you have people from different parts of the US and different countries, such as NY, LA, Chicaco, Miami, etc you will hear many registers. I always go with the majority, so as not to break the unison of the voices.

I think that English speaking Protestants tend to use older English more than Catholics do. I have only known four Protestants in my life. I grew up in a Jewish-Catholic hub of 5,000 people. The first time that I went to a Protestant service was to a memorial service for the father of one of my four Protestant friends. I had a difficult time following the wording as they preached. Rabbis use modern English, Yiddish or Ladino. In Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino the word is Aymein. Not only was the Protestant pastor pronouncing things differently, but his manner of speaking was not how we speak in conversation. It threw me for a loop.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
I always thought all americans say aymen 😃 Sorry guys… Just another stereotype story:blush:😊
 
I always thought all americans say aymen 😃 Sorry guys… Just another stereotype story:blush:😊
Good gravy! NOOOOOOOO

We Southerners speak proper English, unlike the Yanks up north. 😃

Put 10 Americans from different parts of the country in a room, give them a bag of groceries and ask them to name the content. You’ll be very surprised at how differently we pronounce things and we have different names for certain things too. I didn’t know that there were so many ways to name a Coke: pop, soda pop, soda, frap, cola and a few others that I forget.
Why just stop at STEREO-type. Let’s go with Dolby Surround Quadraphonic-type with gigantic woofers:D
:rotfl:

From 1998 to 2002, I was the dean of a college at a large university. The college next door was the College of Communication. I really liked going over, because I learned a great deal about the media. I learned something that I did not know. When the news and other programs that are intended for a wider audience is recorded, the newsmen and women actually practice articulation to reduce their regional registers and accents. What we hear is not always the way they grew up speaking. What we hear is a textbook English. Ever hear the word “ain’t” on the news or at a mass, or yous, yuns, you’ll (you all), y’all? In everyday life, people speak this way.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Put 10 Americans from different parts of the country in a room, give them a bag of groceries and ask them to name the content. You’ll be very surprised at how differently we pronounce things and we have different names for certain things too. I didn’t know that there were so many ways to name a Coke: pop, soda pop, soda, frap, cola and a few others that I forget.
I understand they want to make English the official language of the U.S. My question would be which one? 🙂
 
I understand they want to make English the official language of the U.S. My question would be which one? 🙂
:rotfl:

Please don’t let it be Bostonian English. :eek:

I caun’t pak the cah. 😛

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
But why do we sing “Ah-men” (even when singing in English) if in English we say “Ay-men”?
 
Good gravy! NOOOOOOOO

We Southerners speak proper English, unlike the Yanks up north. 😃

Put 10 Americans from different parts of the country in a room, give them a bag of groceries and ask them to name the content. You’ll be very surprised at how differently we pronounce things and we have different names for certain things too. I didn’t know that there were so many ways to name a Coke: pop, soda pop, soda, frap, cola and a few others that I forget.

:rotfl:

From 1998 to 2002, I was the dean of a college at a large university. The college next door was the College of Communication. I really liked going over, because I learned a great deal about the media. I learned something that I did not know. When the news and other programs that are intended for a wider audience is recorded, the newsmen and women actually practice articulation to reduce their regional registers and accents. What we hear is not always the way they grew up speaking. What we hear is a textbook English. Ever hear the word “ain’t” on the news or at a mass, or yous, yuns, you’ll (you all), y’all? In everyday life, people speak this way.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
Remember the TV western “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” It starred Jane Seymore? In real life she speaks with a British accent. She did not on the program.
 
But why do we sing “Ah-men” (even when singing in English) if in English we say “Ay-men”?
I suppose just because it sounds more proper. “Ahmen” sounds right, I think, to most people, even those who say “aymen.”
 
Remember the TV western “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” It starred Jane Seymore? In real life she speaks with a British accent. She did not on the program.
If you notice, Oprah speaks with a standard American accent, but she’s a southerner. You train to speak that way.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
To me the “standard” American accent sounds midwestern.
What we call “standard” would be the accent from the Great Lakes States. I believe that it was accepted as the “standard” because of its crispness and cadence.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
What we call “standard” would be the accent from the Great Lakes States. I believe that it was accepted as the “standard” because of its crispness and cadence.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
And because it doesn’t drive people nuts when they listen to it. New Yorker accents drive people nuts, southern accents drive people nuts, and Canadian/Wisconsin area accents drive people nuts. The only neutral is from the middle towards the West Coast. 😃
 
And because it doesn’t drive people nuts when they listen to it. New Yorker accents drive people nuts, southern accents drive people nuts, and Canadian/Wisconsin area accents drive people nuts. The only neutral is from the middle towards the West Coast. 😃
Hey! Watch that buddy. I’m from Central VA. 👍

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Remember the TV western “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” It starred Jane Seymore? In real life she speaks with a British accent. She did not on the program.
Remember the group ABBA? They must have gone to the same school. They sang quite a number of English pop songs but couldn’t even give interviews in English until maybe recently.
 
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