How do you pronounce ''amen''?
"Originally and traditionally, I would think that it is "ah-men." (don'tknow why...just sounds right...) I am presently trying to do a search from all of the Bibles I can find with produnciation in the Text...so far none are giving any hints."
In the Bible written in Hebrew, the first letter of "amen" is Aleph under which is a vowel that resembles "T". This is pronounced like "ah" in English.
Speaking of which... do you pronounce "prayer" with one syllable or two?
One syllable. Rhymes with "there".
I always pronounce it ah-men, never ay-men. I've never heard of it being a Catholic-Protestant divide and it sounds unlikely to me, it seems much more likely to be related to dialect than religion.
As for prayer, it rhymes with "there" and "air" for me too. Unless you mean "one who prays" when it would have two syllables, as the first would be the same as the word "pray" itself ;)
I was raised in a Protestant household and I say it both ways.
<<Speaking of which... do you pronounce "prayer" with one syllable or two?>>
Depends on if you mean the person or the action.
"One who prays" I pronounce as two syllables:
["pr\e(I).@r\]
"A prayer" I pronounce as one:
[prEr\]
This is similar to the distinction between "drawer" (one who draws) and the part of a desk that's a "drawer." For me those are:
"one who draws" ["dr\A.@`]
"part of a desk" [dr\Or\]
As for "amen," I say it both ways and I'm protestant.
I'm a Protestant and I also pronounce "amen" both ways.
By the way, Kirk, here's another thing that you can chalk up on my "interesting pronunciations" list. ;-) I pronounce "drawer" (the part of a desk) as [dr\Q], just like "draw". (I can find one attestation for this pronunciation on the Internet: go to
http://www.disboards.com/archive/index.php/t-63591-p-8.html and search the text for the phrase <<"drawer" like "draw">>. The person in question is from New Jersey, so I think that this might be a Northeastern dialect feature. My mother definitely pronounces "drawer" like I do, and I think my father does too.)
Wow, very interesting! Until you posted that and the link I had never heard of such a thing. I'm surprised it hasn't popped up in previous discussions about dialects, especially since I know "drawer" has been talked about here before.
american nic --
I come from a Scandinavian Lutheran background and I say ah-men.
In Southern Minnesota, as well, Catholics say aymen and Lutherans say ahmen. I think other protestant denominations (yes, there are other denominations in Minnesota other than Catholic and Lutheran, Lake Woe-be-gone fans) are pretty split.
I went to a Catholic Mass in Winnipeg, and they said ah-men.
American nic, do you know how North Dakotan Catholics say it? (Or Minnesotan Catholics in the Red River Valley?)
one who prays = ["pr\{I.j@]
words/thoughts intended to be sent above = [pr\e:]
how you might conclude such a message = ["{I.men]
one who draws = ["dr\o:.r@]
the part of a desk = [dr\o:]
what you do with a pencil = [dr\o:]
<<pronounce "drawer" (the part of a desk) just like "draw".>>
I think most English people fail to make the distinction as well.
'drawer' (part of a desk) and 'draw' are identical for me. And I say 'ah-men' (British, Protestant)
<<I think most English people fail to make the distinction as well.>>
That's interesting. I checked oed.com and it said that "draw" for "drawer" was a US variant, interestingly enough. But before Lazar brought it up I'd never heard of it--it's always been a "drawer" as people say it here in California at least.
<<one who prays = ["pr\{I.j@]
words/thoughts intended to be sent above = [pr\e:]
how you might conclude such a message = ["{I.men]
one who draws = ["dr\o:.r@]
the part of a desk = [dr\o:]
what you do with a pencil = [dr\o:]>>
So you also just call that part of a desk a "draw." Of course maybe this is less weird than we think. For instance, I pronounce the part of the desk as [dr\Or\], to which the General Australian equivalent would be [dr\o:], indistinguishable from written "draw" in Australian English. Thus due to my rhoticity I quite clearly distinguish the two but the loss of rhoticity may mean Australians may analyze what they call a [dr\o:] as a "draw," not a "drawer." (What's truly weird to me are the rhotic Americans like Lazar who apparently clearly *do* use the word "draw" for what I call a "drawer." Never heard of that before!)
For both Jim and me this probably goes back to an earlier stage of the language where "er" was tacked onto "draw" and they came to be analyzed as one morpheme (this stage of the language would assumedly predate lack of rhoticity and thus of course the intrusive 'r' of Jim's "person who draws" as ["dr\o:.r@]). This is clear in my case because today a transparent form of morphologically separate "aw + er" would never be pronounced [Or\] since my "aw" is [A] (as can be seen in the still morphologically separate "aw + er" in my "person who draws" as ["dr\A.@`]). A similar example may be found in the historical [O] of "law" and "saw" which is fossilized in my "lawyer" and "sawyer" while my "law" and "saw" have expected [A]. To clarify on my pronunciations a la Jim's helpful example:
one who prays = ["pr\e(I).(j)@`]
words/thoughts intended to be sent above = [pr\E:r\]
how you might conclude such a message = [e(I)"mEn] or [A"mEn]
one who draws = ["dr\A.@`]
the part of a desk = [dr\Or\]
what you do with a pencil = [dr\A]
what criminals break = [lA]
an attorney = ["lOI.(j)@`]
a serrated tool which cuts wood = [sA]
someone who uses aforementioned tool = ["sA.@`]
last name of people whose ancestors probably cut wood = ["sOI.(j)@`]
Ay-men, for me. Neither Protestant nor Catholic.