Dead Giveaways (Of A Linguistic Nature)

[Luigi]

The story about the British soldier whose life was saved when he picked up his rosary got me to thinking.... (always dangerous, sometimes ugly)....

Do you know [i]ANY[/i] Catholic who uses the term "rosary beads?" I've been Catholic all my life; practically everybody I know is Catholic; [i]nobody[/i] ever says rosary [u]beads[/u] - everybody just says "my rosary, his rosary, saying the rosary, praying the rosary." Rosary beads is a dead giveaway the speaker/writer is not Catholic.

Another example. Dr. Martin Luther King. In his "I Have a Dream" speech, he says the word "Catholic" a couple of times, and he says "... when little Cath-o-lic children can play...." He says all three syllables. I've been Catholic all my life; practically everybody I know is Catholic; [i]nobody[/i] ever says [u]Cath-o-lic[/u] - everybody just says "Cathlic" with two syllables. Cath-o-lic is a dead giveaway that the speaker (writer doesn't apply in this case) is not Catholic.

Have you noticed any other dead giveaways - [i]of a linguistic nature[/i]? I don't mean like walking into a Catholic church and not knowing what the holy water font is. (I did see a sign language interpreter once interpret The Holy See as "holy ocean" - he's Baptist...he doesn't know what the Holy See is. But that one doesn't really count.)

Post others you've noticed, and we'll count 'em up - insiders' ways to quickly identify outsiders.

Edited August 4, 2010 by Luigi

[jeffpugh]

I've been to some "eccumincal" prayer meetings at my university--really small ones in the music faculty--and they don't "get" our terminology. And they have their own. "Devotions" is reading the bible, for example. They throw around a lot of words they don't understand the meaning. They have sort of skewed understandings of what they mean. I notice with some protestants (and from back in my days), they aren't as scholarly. It's not a deep faith, sometimes. You know the saying that is something along the lines of knowing history makes you less protestant. I think that goes for a lot of things

[missionseeker]

I've known Catholics who've said both rosary beads and Cath-o-lic



The real dead give away is the way they pronounce "St. Augustine".

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='missionseeker' date='04 August 2010 - 02:01 AM' timestamp='1280901681' post='2151928']
The real dead give away is the way they pronounce "St. Augustine".
[/quote]

Not sure about this, because I know a few Catholics who pronounce it differently from one another. And I only just discovered this past year that I had been saying it wrong.

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='missionseeker' date='04 August 2010 - 07:01 AM' timestamp='1280901681' post='2151928']
I've known Catholics who've said both rosary beads and Cath-o-lic



The real dead give away is the way they pronounce "St. Augustine".
[/quote]
Unless you live in the Diocese of St Augustine, FL.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='missionseeker' date='04 August 2010 - 01:01 AM' timestamp='1280901681' post='2151928']
I've known Catholics who've said both rosary beads and Cath-o-lic



The real dead give away is the way they pronounce "St. Augustine".
[/quote]


[quote name='HisChildForever' date='04 August 2010 - 01:05 AM' timestamp='1280901955' post='2151930']
Not sure about this, because I know a few Catholics who pronounce it differently from one another. And I only just discovered this past year that I had been saying it wrong.
[/quote]
I put the emphasis on the "gus" part. Is that the 'correct' way?

[laetitia crucis]

[quote name='missionseeker' date='04 August 2010 - 02:01 AM' timestamp='1280901681' post='2151928']
I've known Catholics who've said both rosary beads and Cath-o-lic
[/quote]

Ditto.


[quote name='missionseeker']
The real dead give away is the way they pronounce "St. Augustine".
[/quote]

Sooo... how is it properly said?

I've heard both "Au-goo-steen" and "Uh-GUS-tin".

I've always pronounced it "Au-goo-steen"... which apparently is acceptable in Spanish. My former community was made up of a majority of native-Spanish speakers, so... now I feel this pronunciation is pretty well cemented for me.

The first time I heard of "St. Uh-GUS-tin", I was like, "Who??"

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='04 August 2010 - 09:28 AM' timestamp='1280928510' post='2151967']
I put the emphasis on the "gus" part. Is that the 'correct' way?
[/quote]

Yes, and you would pronounce "-tine" as "tin", like in "tin can".

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='HisChildForever' date='04 August 2010 - 08:56 AM' timestamp='1280930170' post='2151985']
Yes, and you would pronounce "-tine" as "tin", like in "tin can".
[/quote]
Yea, me too. Although when I was younger I pronounced it ɑ-gus-TEEN, with the emphasis either on the ɑ or the teen.

[laetitia crucis]

I just found this amusing blogpost when googling "how to pronounce Augustine":

[url="http://drjonasblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/augusteen-or-gust-in.html"]"AUgusteen" or "a-GUS-tin"?[/url]

Hahaha!

Edit/P.S. -- Here is another thing I've just found (from [url="http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=948657&postcount=7"]here[/url] via Googling) that makes me all the more

[quote]
The Latin for Augustine is Augustinus. For Latin names ending in -inus or -anus, the penultimate syllable is virtually always long.

Augustinus
Aemillianus
Octavianus
Atratinus

It is more appropriate in English to stress whatever syllable would be long in the Latin. Hence augusTInus becomes augusTINE. This is, of course, not a general rule that applies to all Latin words, but it usually does hold for nomenclature.

I think the auGUStine confusion is caused by the pronounciation of Augustus, about which there is little controversy to my knowledge. If you pronounce it auGUStus, then logically you would pronounce Augustine with a stressed antipenultimate syllable. If you don't know Latin, of course.[/quote]

Vedy interesting. Edited August 4, 2010 by laetitia crucis

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='04 August 2010 - 10:01 AM' timestamp='1280930511' post='2151987']
Yea, me too. Although when I was younger I pronounced it ɑ-gus-TEEN, with the emphasis either on the ɑ or the teen.
[/quote]

Yup that is exactly how I used to pronounce it: Uh-gus-TEEN. Although it sounded more like Aw-gus-TEEN (now Aw-GUS-tin) because of my accent. Hah.

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='Luigi' date='04 August 2010 - 01:23 AM' timestamp='1280899434' post='2151919']
Another example. Dr. Martin Luther King. In his "I Have a Dream" speech, he says the word "Catholic" a couple of times, and he says "... when little Cath-o-lic children can play...." He says all three syllables. I've been Catholic all my life; practically everybody I know is Catholic; [i]nobody[/i] ever says [u]Cath-o-lic[/u] - everybody just says "Cathlic" with two syllables. Cath-o-lic is a dead giveaway that the speaker (writer doesn't apply in this case) is not Catholic.

[/quote]
I say Cath-o-lic. Or more like Cath-uh-lic, I guess...the O is there, might as well use it.
[quote name='missionseeker' date='04 August 2010 - 02:01 AM' timestamp='1280901681' post='2151928']
The real dead give away is the way they pronounce "St. Augustine".
[/quote]
[quote name='Archaeology cat' date='04 August 2010 - 06:52 AM' timestamp='1280919143' post='2151949']
Unless you live in the Diocese of St Augustine, FL.
[/quote]
It makes it easier for context's sake.
For instance, I've never heard of anyone living in St. A-gus-tin. (Doubt it would be very roomy in him.)

[Tridenteen]

JMJ
I've noticed that when priests are "in public" that people who aren't catholic generally begin scratching their necks. They also call priests "uh,fr?" Yeah, they aren't used to them, but it is kind of funny. I went swimming one time and the life guard brought over my scapular and said "is this your...thingy?" when asked how they knew it might be mine the reply was "um, you look cath-o-lic?" what does a catholics look like?

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Tridenteen' date='04 August 2010 - 10:42 AM' timestamp='1280936531' post='2152023']
JMJ
I've noticed that when priests are "in public" that people who aren't catholic generally begin scratching their necks. They also call priests "uh,fr?" Yeah, they aren't used to them, but it is kind of funny. I went swimming one time and the life guard brought over my scapular and said "is this your...thingy?" when asked how they knew it might be mine the reply was "um, you look cath-o-lic?" what does a catholics look like?
[/quote]
Did the burqini give you away again?

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='Tridenteen' date='04 August 2010 - 11:42 AM' timestamp='1280936531' post='2152023']
I went swimming one time and the life guard brought over my scapular and said "is this your...thingy?" when asked how they knew it might be mine the reply was "um, you look cath-o-lic?" what does a catholics look like?
[/quote]

Now THAT is interesting. I have a similar story. Freshman year of high school I did track, long distance, and as we finished up an absolutely awful run I was swearing. We ran to Dairy Queen, and after we ate we were supposed to run back. There goes our ice cream, right? Anyway, one of the upperclassman said she was shocked because "You are supposed to be this nice Catholic girl!" Well, that shocked me because back then I was pretty quiet, so no one save my close friends knew anything about my religious opinions. The only tell-tale sign would be the cross on my neck, but so many people wear them it is not exactly a giveaway.