Ay-men/Ah-men?

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As a convert, I am puzzled by what appears to be the nearly ubiquitous use of the pronunciation, “Ay-men,” in Catholic churches. Where did that come from? In my experience, prior to becoming Catholic, nobody north of the Mason-Dixon line ever pronounced it that way. Even in the South, Episcopalians certainly didn’t (and probably still don’t) say, “ay-men.” Was there a directive from “liturgy central” that Catholics would adopt this pronunciation? It isn’t used it in the UK. The posh little parish near my office, where I attend daily Mass in New York City, seems to divide about 50-50 on this.

Just curious.
 
As a convert from Lutheranism this always puzzled me a little too- not to look down on those who use Ay-men or anything- but it just seemed to me that the tradition of liturgical Latin (in which it would have been correctly pronounced “Ah-men”) in the Catholic church would have become ingrained in Catholics.
As I said it doesn’t bother me but just seemed a bit unusual.
 
Catholics tend to favour a pronunciation in which the first syllable rhymes with day. [ay-men] when speaking the word - Amen. But [ah -men] is used in singing.

It’s sounds as if some are crossing them over instead of using them in the proper context. Singing vs speaking.
 
I’ve always said “Ay-men” in English and “Ah-men” in Latin. And “Ah-men” when I pray with Protestants! Well, actually they say something more like “Aw-men.” OK, now I’m getting silly.

Betsy
 
In my Reformed Church, the pastor usually says “Ay-men”, but some others usually say “Ah-men” and it’s always so in singing. In Baptist churches I’ve visited I’ve frequently heard the term “Ay-man”. Greeks pronounce it “Ah-meen” per the church I’ve visited as well as the Greek liturgy CD i own. When Jews say it they do it in the originaly Hebrew and say “Ah-mayn”.

Am I missing one here?
 
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J_Chrysostomos:
In my Reformed Church, the pastor usually says “Ay-men”, but some others usually say “Ah-men” and it’s always so in singing. In Baptist churches I’ve visited I’ve frequently heard the term “Ay-man”. Greeks pronounce it “Ah-meen” per the church I’ve visited as well as the Greek liturgy CD i own. When Jews say it they do it in the originaly Hebrew and say “Ah-mayn”.

Am I missing one here?
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The Rabbi where I work says “Oh-mayn”
 
It might be a regional pronunciation thing. I’m used to hearing ah-men, but when I was down in the southwestern US last month, I heard a lot of ay-mens. Very distracting! 😃

(IMHO, everybody should follow the practice of the only accentless people in the world … the canucks on the prairies 😛 )
 
if you find it confusing… just respond with…“I Believe”… 👍
 
I grew up saying “AH-men” in German and continue to do so in English as well. Am not sure it matters. “You say ‘po-Tay-to’ and I say 'Po-tah-to”. In Latin & Greek it is Ah-men. Someone has observed that the Hebrew pronunciation, and one assumes therefore the coRRECt pronunciation, is Oh-Main.
 
Many thanks to all who have contributed here; does anyone here have enough “institutional memory” to recall whether there was ever an official directive from “the mother house” – i.e. USCCB? Did individual dioceses make a policy?

Coming into the Church after 40 years of liturgical experimentation, can be unsettling; I am merely curious about this because no Catholic I know above the age of 50 ever said “ay-men” in childhood, yet people seem to be perfectly comfortable with it.
 
aye-men is English, ahh-men is Latin. A left-over from the Latin Mass.
 
No matter how you pronounce it - it means the same thing -

Webster says the difference is in whether you say it or sing it

Main Entry: amen [m-w.com/images/audio.gif](javascript:popWin(’/cgi-bin/audio.pl?amen0001.wav=amen’)) [m-w.com/images/audio.gif](javascript:popWin(’/cgi-bin/audio.pl?amen0002.wav=amen’))
Pronunciation: (’)ä-‘men, (’)A-; 'ä- when sung
Function: interjection
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English, from Late Latin, from Greek *amEn, *from Hebrew AmEn
– used to express solemn ratification (as of an expression of faith) or hearty approval (as of an assertion)
 
Funny thing- Merriam Websters Dictionary online lists both as acceptable English but preserves the distinction between sung and spoken.
 
No matter how you pronounce it - it means the same thing -
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Certainly.

But back to the original post-- why the difference–
I wonder if it’s just filtered in from the predominantly Protestant culture.
 
Sr. Mary Deotima taught me that if you were praying in Latin, Polish, etc, the correct pronounciation would be Ah-men. If you are praying in English, it is Ay-men.

Wow - I had her in the fourth grade and still remember this. That was like 200 years ago! 😉
 
I used to always say ay-men, but after studying various languages where “a” is usually always pronounced “ah”, I’ve started saying ah-men – it seems more universal. If I remember correctly, in The Passion, they pronounced it Ah-meen.

If there was some sort of “directive” to say it a certain way, I’ve never heard of it.
 
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Marie:
…But [ah -men] is used in singing…
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…Unless you are singing along with Sydney Portier and the nuns in The Lilies of the Field.

J.B.
 
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