How to Say: Anglican terms
15:14 UK time, Wednesday, 9 July 2008
An occasional guide to the words and names in the news from Jo Kim of the Â鶹Éç Pronunciation Unit.
The Church of England's ruling General Synod met at the Lambeth conference this week and several related words and names have been in the news. Some of our recommended pronunciations are given below. Stressed syllables are shown in upper case.
1. The Christian name of Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is pronounced ROH-uhn (-oh as in no).
2. The family name of Dr. John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York is pronounced SENT-uh-moo (-e as in bet, uh as a in ago), with stress on the first syllable. Back in the late 80s, Dr. Sentamu was a contributor to the World Service Religions programmes and told the Â鶹Éç with regards to the pronunciation of his name, "left moo, right moo, Sentamu."
3. DIOCESE is pronounced DY-uh-sis (-y as in sky). The plural DIOCESES is a little bit more controversial. Dictionaries give several pronunciations such as DY-uh-siss-iz (-y as in sky), DY-uh-seez (-y as in sky, -ee as in meet) and DY-uh-seez-iz (-y as in sky). The word has generally been pronounced DY-uh-seez (-y as in sky, -ee as in meet) by members of the General Synod during the recent Lambeth conference, although a few DY-uh-seez-iz (-y as in sky) could be heard.
4. EPISCOPAL is pronounced uh-PISS-kuh-puhl (-uh as a in ago).
5. The word 'synod' is given as SIN-uhd (-i as in bit, uh as a in ago) in Oxford English dictionary and Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. SIN-od (-o as in hot) is sometimes given as a variant pronunciation in dictionaries.
To download the Â鶹Éç Pronunciation Unit's guide to text spelling, click here.
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