How to pronounce augustine

[You]

I grew up in Florida, where I was extremely familiar with the city of St. Augustine… pronounced, Saint Aw-gus-teen.

I keep hearing Uh-gus-tin now that I’m in the RCC. I frankly can’t see this pronunciation in any manner whatsoever based on the spelling. Is it a Latin vestige?

FWIW, this discussion is the exact reason I despise the English “language”. I can’t wait for the bastardization we know as English to die a fiery death. This is exactly why I want to learn Latin, and why, if I am ever gifted the responsibility of children, they will be polyglots.

e at the end of a word with “ine” = een, in my experience. English… ugh.

Unless its a silent ‘e’.

 

[Hokomai]

I was just wondering then, why do we say ConstanTEEN for Constantine, and not AugusTEEN for Augustine.

We don’t say ConsTANtin.

We say LiberTEEN, not LiBERtin.

PalesTYNE, not PaLAStin.

Language is a mysterious thing.

Well, English anyway! I say awe-gus-tin, except in the song which goes Ah, my dear old Awe-gus-teen.

 

[inocente]

Well, English anyway! I say awe-gus-tin, except in the song which goes Ah, my dear old Awe-gus-teen.

Thread started in 2005!

According to the computer on Google Translate:

Spanish (Agustín) = a-gus-tin
Latin or Italian (Augustine) = aw-gus-teen-eh
English (Augustine) = or-gus-teen
Chinese = aw-gus-a-deen

 

[jonbhorton]

Thread started in 2005!

According to the computer on Google Translate:

Spanish (Agustín) = a-gus-tin
Latin or Italian (Augustine) = aw-gus-teen-eh
English (Augustine) = or-gus-teen
Chinese = aw-gus-a-deen

Re: 2005

This isn’t Catholic Answers 2011 ONLY, it’s Catholic Answers. Had I started a thread, undoubtedly someone would have linked me to this thread. I did a google search and since one of the first results was this forum I decided to reply. Surely others have the same question who are newer to the Faith than 2005.

My inquiry was regarding whether or not aw-gus-tin was the only proper way or just a vestige of another language. It appears that the answer is essentially flexible. John, Juan, Iohannes, etc- same difference.

I guess the most correct answer is: “when in Rome…”

 

[vsedriver]

FWIW, this discussion is the exact reason I despise the English “language”. I can’t wait for the bastardization we know as English to die a fiery death. This is exactly why I want to learn Latin, and why, if I am ever gifted the responsibility of children, they will be polyglots.

e at the end of a word with “ine” = een, in my experience. English… ugh.

LOL! as if they don’t have different pronunciations in Latin too.

 

[jonbhorton]

LOL! as if they don’t have different pronunciations in Latin too.

Pronunciation in the context of Latin is no issue at all, it’s a perfectly phonetic language without silent letters- similar to Arabic, and other languages. The issue with English is, as I said, it’s a bastardized language. It’s got baby daddy, momma boyfriends, questionable uncles, half-siblings, etcetera; Latin is Latin is Latin.

The issue being addressed in this thread is, in fact, confusion due to that skyscraper building project of the mud brick variety in Babel. Latin, being perfectly phonetic and more concrete, is desirable for a multitude of reasons, religious only one of many.

Crack open a medical book and ask any med student, from any native language, what the obicularis oculi is and where it is located, or any other Latin derived term. You’ll get the same answer from Interns Priya Singh, Fun Tao Cho, and John America Doe.

This unfailing continuity is necessary. Thank God the medical industry hasn’t engaged in a Medical II, or we might be calling obicularis oculi “that roundish muscle thingy around the vision organ portal” … or whatever makes the last-in-their-class-doctors happy and coming to work.

 

[Godfollower]

Thank God the medical industry hasn’t engaged in a Medical II, or we might be calling obicularis oculi “that roundish muscle thingy around the vision organ portal” … or whatever makes the last-in-their-class-doctors happy and coming to work.

Or this:

Shawn Spencer: Now do you want to help this patient or not?
Walker: Of course, sir.
Shawn Spencer: Then speak to me like I’m ten years old.
Walker: He had a sudden drop in blood pressure, which deprived his brain of blood. He also suffered a contusion and slight cerebral hemorrhage.
Shawn Spencer: [pause] Talk to me like I’m five.
Walker: Uh… his blood pressure went boom and his brain got an owie.

“Psych: The Old and the Restless (#2.12)” (2008)

 

[Charlemagne_II]

johnnyswife

You know, of course, that almost everybody will call your son Gus for a nickname.

Hope you like it.

 

[JDaniel]

I’ve noticed that differentiation in pronunciation between Protestants and Catholics. I wonder why that is?

Mike:

We prefer that Latin-ized version (as in: the Latin language), they prefer the Americanized version. “Aw-gus-tin” is how you’ll hear most Priests say it. More than likely, St. Augustine would have been known by the Latin version.

God bless,
jd

 

[LilyM]

Well, his name was Aurelius Augustinus anyway, so Augustine is a mongrelised French or English translation, and pronunciations will all be wrong.

However, Aw-GUS-tin would seem to be the closest approximation among those used by English speakers.

 

[Kathryn_Ann]

**I know this is a Protestant thing! I’m a Catholic convert and was shocked to find my new Catholic parish pronouncing it

Saint uh GUST in :harp:

not

St. OG is TEEN.

In high school, we studied the Confessions, and it always sounded so natural to say, The Confessions of St. OG is TEEN.

As a convert, I must now fit it, but it does NOT trip off the tongue easily, I must admit, to say ST. uh GUST in.

I promise to keep practicing…
ST. uh GUST in
ST. uh GUST in…
Best wishes**
:angel1:

 

[MB_in_Mich]

No one who attended Catholic schools could EVER pronounce the saint as AuguSTEEN for we know that’s the city, or so declared every sister and priest we had in class. AugusTEEN makes us cringe and even wince aloud. And snap the correct “AuGUSTin” at the speaker as I did at an English department meeting today when we discussed teaching St. AuGUSTin’s Confessions. Such a reaction’s a reflex, so watch out all you STEENers. We GUSTers are ubiquitous!

 

[bobballen_18]

Thank you for all the responses! We have a son on the way and we have been reading the works of St. Augustine and we are considering naming our son Augustine. However, we had to make sure we had the pronunciation correct so we didn’t look like total idiots when people asked us why we named him Augustine and we tried to explain that he was named after St. Augustine – it might help if we could pronounce his name correctly as well as talk about how his life and writings inspired us .

My middle name is Augustine… I used to always get bugged (and still sometimes do) when people refer to him as “St. AW-gus-teen.” I grew up pronouncing my middle name “Uh-GUS-tin.”

 

[Aloysium]

Thread started in 2005!

According to the computer on Google Translate:

Spanish (Agustín) = a-gus-tin
Latin or Italian (Augustine) = aw-gus-teen-eh
English (Augustine) = or-gus-teen
Chinese = aw-gus-a-deen

I would say that the Italian would be sant’ah-goose-teen-aw that’s how I hear it.