We have an unwritten 'rule' in my church when it comes to Bible readings - I tell people that if they are unsure how to say someone's name just say "Sausages." People generally get the drift that what I'm saying is that it doesn't matter if they get the name wrong, and one person did once refer to King Sausages in an OT reading without anyone (apart from me) spotting it. Sorry, I know, I'm a terrible heretic.
Last Sunday I was asked about the pronunciation of the name of the prophet we were reading - is it 'a-back-ook' (stress on middle syllable) I was asked. It took me a moment or two to realise they were refrring to Habakkuk. In a couple of weeks we'll no doubt have Aggie - not someone's elderly aunt, but the prophet Haggai. I never did Hebrew so my pronunciations of the names are those I've received over the years but I am guessing, that as with Greek 'H's (rough breathings) Hebrew 'H's matter.
I'm sure it isn't really that important, it just continually makes me smile that people who live in a place that begins with a letter H studiously do not sound it.
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I generally tell people that we all mispronounce Hebrew names anyway (I suspect if we got them right they'd be somewhere between gargling and spitting and nobody would be able to tell what we were saying either) - and there won't be any ancient Israelites around to tell us off, so not to worry.
But for some reason that doesn't seem to encourage them...
How are Dibley folk at pronouncing Catriona these days?
Hi Andy, I have them adequately trained to my 'low-Scottish' pronunciation. Every now and then I get the sassenach version from someone, very occasionally I get a strictly correct Scottish pronunciation. More interesting is the variations in spelling I get, and people who think I cannot spell my own name. Pity my poor sister whose name, also Scottish Gaelic, confuses everyone apart from Scots and Asians.
Hi Catriona,
I promise it's true - I was at a service one Christmas when the man asked to read the first half of Matthew 2 actually listed the gifts as "gold, frankenstein and myrrh" ...
(Many years earlier I was a reader at a school carol service in the Norman parish church of the village of W******k, itself oft mispronounced, which is quite near you - we were singing "O little town of Bethlehem" and as we reached the lines "Yet in thy dark streets shineth / the everlasting light" half the lights in the church suddenly went out. Don't ask me how I managed not to laugh!)