Pronunciation of "Amen" during Liturgy of the Hours

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Angela77

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I’ve been praying Compline with a group this week, and I’ve observed that most people pronounce Amen as Ah-men during this time. Are you not supposed to say Amen with a long A during the Liturgy of the Hours?
 
Angela77 said:
I’ve been praying Compline with a group this week, and I’ve observed that most people pronounce Amen as Ah-men during this time. Are you not supposed to say Amen with a long A during the Liturgy of the Hours?
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I believe you can say it whichever way you want at whatever liturgy you want (including Mass) if you are praying in English. If you are praying in Latin, it should be Ah-men. Me, I pronnunce it Ah-men all the time because I was tired of having one way just for spoken English and another way for sung English, spoken Latin, and sung Latin. So the majority vote went with Ah-men. 🙂

–Jen
 
I personally found it a bother that there seemed to be some kind of rule that if you were singing it, it was ah-men and if you spoke it, it was ay-men, so I decided to always say ah-men in every case.

At least one other person in my parish agrees with me.
 
I too say ahmen at all times. Why should we ape the people who hate us and always say aymen?
 
In the UK all Catholics (and liturgical Protestants) pronounce it Ah-men. Ay-men is associated with charismatics, a small group of conservative evangelicals and American tourists!
 
Angela77 said:
I’ve been praying Compline with a group this week, and I’ve observed that most people pronounce Amen as Ah-men during this time. Are you not supposed to say Amen with a long A during the Liturgy of the Hours?
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Concentrating on what you are saying rather than how to say it, would be a better choice for all of us
 
I say Ay-men. I’m from the south. We say everything differently.:p:D
 
I am from the South too, so it has always been ay-men for me.

Here in the Atlanta suburbs, I am a rare creature indeed, a Southerner where most are not. I hit on another thing in the Mass where my pronunciation is different. When we get to “Light from Light”, well, you can guess.
 
andrewstx said:
I too say ahmen at all times. Why should we ape the people who hate us and always say aymen?
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There are a lot of Christians who say “Ay-men” who don’t hate you. I hope you will meet many of them and see for yourself.
 
If you want to be American, say “Ay-men.”

If you want to be correct (from the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Latin), say “Ah-men.”
 
‘Ah-men’ is the way it was originally pronounced in Hebrew, then Greek, then Latin, and then English (initially). ‘Ay-men’ is a linguistic corruption (no negative connotation intended) that later occurred in the English language . As proof of this lineage, ‘ah-men’ occurs in many other languages as well, while ‘ay-men’ is only really found in English. And then there’s ‘ah-meen’, which is more common amongst the Syriacs.

Choose what makes you comfortable. 😃
 
There have been literally dozens of threads asking this same question. Do a search.

I notice that people who say Ay-men will sing Ah-men. I point out this out to them, and they rarely have a reason other than some version of “it sounds right.” I say that it sounds right because it is, and suggest that they should say it that way consistently.
 
I rally am not trying to be sarcastic here, please don’t misinterpret this-but why does it matter?

I am 64 years old. I grew up in NE Ohio saying Ay-men. I wish someone would give me a reasonable and sensible answer why this matters. For real.
 
Always “ahmen”. But then, usually in French or Latin, so there’s no choice 😉
 
CB_Catholic said:
I rally am not trying to be sarcastic here, please don’t misinterpret this-but why does it matter?

I am 64 years old. I grew up in NE Ohio saying Ay-men. I wish someone would give me a reasonable and sensible answer why this matters. For real.
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It doesn’t matter. I’m sure God understands what we are saying when we say Ay-men. 🙂
 
CB_Catholic said:
I rally am not trying to be sarcastic here, please don’t misinterpret this-but why does it matter?

I am 64 years old. I grew up in NE Ohio saying Ay-men. I wish someone would give me a reasonable and sensible answer why this matters. For real.
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I too am perplexed by those who think it matters when speaking. (I understand why it matters when singing; that vowel pronunciation has no business in ANY song!) I learned to say Ay-men from my Catholic parents (Dad is in his 80s) and from the Sisters of Notre Dame (many of whom were from Ohio.) Catholics have been saying Ay-men for years so I don’t understand those who want to associate it with Protestantism.

I think the real reason people don’t like Ay-men is because they see it as the lower class pronunciation.

For those who can’t be bothered to follow links or search previous threads, Ay-men did NOT originate in the United States. It is apparently of Irish origin.

I have met Catholics from the UK who told me that Ay-men was how they pronounced the word when speaking in English.
 
Cat said:
There are a lot of Christians who say “Ay-men” who don’t hate you. I hope you will meet many of them and see for yourself.
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👍

As a musician ah-men is much easier to sing is most songs, especially serious ones.
At any rate in a choir the director makes the call (and usually it is ah-men) all members of the choir will sing it the same way or it would sound terrible.

One more idea. Try singing ah for several beats. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
You can go on forever.
Try singing A AAaayeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,
Is the result unless you work hard soften the A.
 
We say Ay-men out here in the Appalachians, including our Catholic lawyer, judges, doctors, CEOs, etc. The pronunciation is neither evangelical or low class, it is just dialect.
 
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