Ahmen or Aymen?

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andrewstx said:
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.
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Ahmen is the usual pronunciation in Latin.
Aymen is the usual pronunciation in English.
 
JReducation said:
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 🙂
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Excepting the Chicago accent —
In the city of Chicago, the accent is Chicago accent -
but it’s improving over the years.
 
I do a little of both. I say “Ah-men” when I do the rosary out loud (from participating with Mother Angelica and the nuns). And mostly I say “Ay-men” in church.

🙂
 
Excepting the Chicago accent —
In the city of Chicago, the accent is Chicago accent -
but it’s improving over the years.
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Hey, at least we pronounce our nd’s and ng’s. And we might even get that Take Me Out to the Ballgame song right one of these days. 🙂
 
George_Stegmeir said:
Who cares? The discussion either way reminds me of the Pharassees in the New Testament and the arguments called a “pilpul” done by torah students in modern judiaism.
These arguments are the equivalent to the medieval argument of "how many angels fit on the head of a pin? ".

’
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Yeah, it’s kind of a “poe-tay-toh/poe-tah-toe” kind of argument. It’s really got to do with a person’s accent, and God could care less about that: what He cares about is where our hearts are when we pray.
 
Matrix_Refugee said:
It’s really got to do with a person’s accent, and God could care less about that:
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Now I heard an Englishman would scoff at that one. He would tell you it’s “Gawd could NOT care less.” 🙂

And don’t ever use the word “pants” in front of him either.🙂
 
Matrix_Refugee said:
Yeah, it’s kind of a “poe-tay-toh/poe-tah-toe” kind of argument. It’s really got to do with a person’s accent, and God could care less about that: what He cares about is where our hearts are when we pray.
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George_Stegmeir said:
Who cares? The discussion either way reminds me of the Pharassees in the New Testament and the arguments called a “pilpul” done by torah students in modern judiaism.
These arguments are the equivalent to the medieval argument of "how many angels fit on the head of a pin? ".
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There is no argument. Everyone agrees that the English language has many registers. It’s just a lighhearted discussion on a silly subject. Sometimes it’s fun to get silly.

When we think of how we pronounce something in English, we have remember that not only is the USA equivalent to 50 countries, but there are English speaking countries around the world that were once British colonies and now have their own accents and cadence.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Sounds like a blast from the past…

I went to Catholic schools and was taught primarily by Irish nuns or such like…the letter “H” was taught as "heh’.

Snobby English grammer schools taught “aitch”.

The equation was common Paddy taught kids were Catholic and the rest were la-de-dah professionals and protestant…ahh the good old days!!!:eek:

…and of course the whole world knows that God has a strine accent:thumbsup:
 
JReducation said:
There is no argument. Everyone agrees that the English language has many registers. It’s just a lighhearted discussion on a silly subject. Sometimes it’s fun to get silly.

When we think of how we pronounce something in English, we have remember that not only is the USA equivalent to 50 countries, but there are English speaking countries around the world that were once British colonies and now have their own accents and cadence.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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Actually I was being serious in a way. I came from a southern fundamental background and they all said aymen without exception. Went Episcopal for a time they said ahmen.
And it was a shock to me when I heard Catholics saying AYmen just like the Catholic hating evangelicals did.

The church I was raised and dunked in thought they were the REAL church of Christ, and the Catholic church is “TOTALLY APOSTATE” just like the Mormons.

That was what I associated the aymen pronunciation with.
 
JReducation said:
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.
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It must be interesting living in a country where people speak differently, where ever u go!
 
I realized I used both. When I speak, I use “Ay-men” and when I sing, I use 'Awe-men". I think the latter sounds better when sung.

As to accents, I think most of the US news anchors sound like they’re from Ohio. 😃
 
JReducation said:
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 🙂
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My sentiments exactly. The Great Lakes States accent seems to be the standard American manner of speech. It is crisp without being too crisp and it has just the right cadence, not too fast or too slow. Perfect for the mass media (radio or TV)
 
Chatter163 said:
But why do we sing “Ah-men” (even when singing in English) if in English we say “Ay-men”?
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Just as an experiment, I tried singing an extended (like in Credo III) ay-men vs ah-men. Seems as if there is slightly more work singing an ay-men to that tune but feel free to try it out yourselves (if there is no one around you.:))
 
ProVobis said:
Just as an experiment, I tried singing an extended (like in Credo III) ay-men vs ah-men. Seems as if there is slightly more work singing an ay-men to that tune but feel free to try it out yourselves (if there is no one around you.:))
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…and it just doesn’t sound right either.
 
catharina said:
HI back at ya’.
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I’m originally from Mt. Carroll (the other end of North Avenue also known as Illinois Route 64) but have lived in Rockford since 1970.😃 Someone on a Chicago radio station once said if you want to get from Chicago to Mt. Carroll, Illinois just stay on North Avenue for 150 miles and you’re there!
 
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