Pronunciation watch

[ahinton]

.

... isn't it the Yorkshire "ay up"?

(I seem to recall from from my Wiltshire childhood we had an equivalent : "ooh aah")

Better ask the Iona Community; they might think that its origins are there...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But is the "i" supposed to be almost silent?

[vinteuil]

But is the "i" supposed to be almost silent?

... you mean it shd be yo-yo rather than eye-o eye-o ?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... you mean it shd be yo-yo rather than eye-o eye-o ?

Eye, 'appen.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Isn't it an all-purpose, generic "filler" like "hey, nonny-no", "a-wop-bop-a-luba, a-lop-bam-boom" and the "E-i-e-i-o" so favoured by Old MacDonald?

You mean like the swear words in rap lyrics?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

You mean like the swear words in rap lyrics?

I would have no way of knowing, kind sir!

[jean]

But is the "i" supposed to be almost silent?

No, because it has a note to itself (but you knew that really).

Well, my dictionary gives Latin iō (Greek ἰώ; monosyllable or disyllable) as an interjection of joy, ho! hurrah!, as used by Plautus, Tibullus, Horace); but also of pain (Plautus, Tibullus).

I've never found that explpanaion convincing, because io never occurs by itself anywhere in the liturgy - and it's priest and people we're talking about, not some classical poet.

The English words of the carol are early C20 - pity nobody thought to ask the author while he was still alive!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I would have no way of knowing, kind sir!

Two semiquavers = a common swear word in noun form. Four semiquavers is the same, but involves a close female ancestor.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

... you mean it shd be yo-yo rather than eye-o eye-o ?

That makes sense, but see page 28 of Carol for Choirs I.

[ahinton]

eye-o eye-o

...it's off to Pedantry central we go...

[jean]

That was the example I alluded to. Is it in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro (Act II quartet)??? where three characters sing in turn:
Ee-o
Ee-o
Ee-o

I was thinking more of this:

...the tendency of some English amateur singers to lose the 'i' of the pronoun 'io' completely when it's set to one note as so often in Monteverdi madrigals...

I didn't realise it was a new term. I'd thought it was connected with 'rhotacism'. But this isn't relevant here, is it?

Rhotacism is also quite new, it seems. I just thought people might be interested.

[jean]

Am I imagining it, or have I just heard the R4 continuity announcer speak of In dulci yoobeeyo? Has he been misreading this thread?

[Serial_Apologist]

Am I imagining it, or have I just heard the R4 continuity announcer speak of In dulci yoobeeyo? Has he been misreading this thread?

We have to in dulc these people...

[ahinton]

Am I imagining it, or have I just heard the R4 continuity announcer speak of In dulci yoobeeyo? Has he been misreading this thread?

No idea as I didn't hear this myself but perhaps, if so, he(/she?)'s already been over-in-dulcing in the festive bubbly at license payers' expense?.....

[jean]

Andrew Marr this morning insists on stressing St Augustine on his first syllable - Christopher de Hamel tries to remember to defer to the presenter, but sometimes forgets and stresses the second syllable instead (as is the usual way, isn't it?)