Proclaimer Blog
Pronunciation, public reading and the mountain
Have you been to see Everest yet? I can’t say that the film holds much attraction for me; but then you may be completely unexcited about the Lance Armstrong movie The Program, which I can’t wait to get to the cinema for.
Bizarrely, my nephew is a vicar in the parish in Hove where George Everest (1790-1866) is buried and he tells me that there are occasional visitors to see the headstone. Even more bizarrely, he never even saw the mountain itself, but had his name attached to it, almost by accident (George that is, not my nephew, although come to think of it, I don’t think he’s been to see the mountain either).
However, the most bizarre thing about the whole incident is that the boy George didn’t pronounce his name the way we do. It’s not Ev-er-est. But Eve (as in Adam)-rest. So there. Try that one out at dinner parties! I feel sad for poor George. No one is really going to care, are they, and we are not going to start pronouncing the mountain with a different emphasis.
And, of course, it simply doesn’t matter very much. Which – in a roundabout way – brings me to the public reading of Scripture, round one. There’s a bit too much preciousness about how words in Scripture are pronounced in certain circles; what would it really have sounded like, that kind of thing. I think some of that discussion is a load of tosh – as though anybody I know pronounces David with anything other than an Anglo Saxon gloss.
When it comes to public reading we want clear voices and annunciation, good and even pace and tone. I think precise pronunciation comes well down the list, if it even makes it at all (especially given that even scholars are a little uncertain). All of which is to say, let’s prepare people well for public reading, but let’s not add burdens to them that don’t need to be added. It’s an unnecessary mountain to climb.