Have you ever been mid-conversation when you realize that you've read a whole bunch of books about things but you've never really talked to someone about those things and so you are pronouncing everything wrong? It's like learning a new language which sounds romantic but actually means "embarrassing myself in public".
It's like the time a friend of mine and I were explaining the English phrase "bats in the belfry" to a friend while I was living in France. Not knowing the word for bats, we franglicized the word "mammal" and said "mammals that fly". Our friend said that was a VERY strange phrase. Of course, later we realized "mammal" with a french accent actually means "breast". Somewhere in France, there may be a person who still believes that when English speakers think someone is crazy, they say they have flying breasts in their bell towers.
Oh, I have many more examples displaying my own ignorance especially when it comes to names of authors and places. So I asked Thoughts on the Way the Abbey for permission to publish some pronunciations from the names for the hours that he shared on the Onehouse online forum.
I am here to help you my friends (blind leading less blind or batty leading less batty...) and to keep you from having strange objects fly in your bell towers as we learn new things together. Favorite bat quote: "You wouldn't hurt a bat with glasses on would you?" (A prize to the first person who emails and identifies the source of that quote.)
Lauds is "lawds"
Terce is "terse"
None rhymes with bone
Compline is ComplINN
You forgot "Vigils" :)
But I'm sure the pronunciation of that one is no problem.
Also, perhaps you knew this already,
but I didn't know it until I started hanging with them regularly, the
Benedictines don't call themselves BenedictEENS as I have often heard
them called, but BenedictINNS.
Ok, other funky (Benedictine) words.The 4 stages of lectio
divina:
Lectio. I thought it was like "lektio".
Every Benedictine I've ever heard say it says it like "lexio".
And meditatio, oratio, and
contemplatio they pronounce with the SEE-OH in them too, like
meditatSEE-OH, oratSEE-OH, and contemplatSEE-OH.