Wednesday, August 17, 2011

WNW: Mormon Edition, Take 2

A couple of years ago I did a Mormon Edition for Word Nerd Wednesday, wherein we discussed the proper pronunciation of words like Ensign, Patriarchal, and Melchizedek, and how the phrase "strait and narrow" (meaning tight and narrow, basically synonyms) is constantly misunderstood and referred to as "straight and narrow" (not twisty and narrow). You can read that post HERE.

I thought it might be time for another edition with a few more Mormon-y common mistakes.


Shew
I know this looks like new and threw. That's the reason we often hear pronounced as SHOO.

I pronounced it like that well into my adulthood until someone corrected me. Doubtful, I looked it up, and lo and behold, they were right. It's an archaic spelling of show, but it's still pronounced the same way: show. It uses the same spelling (and sound) that sew does.


Yea/Ye/Yeah
In the scriptures, we see yea. Most people pronounce it correctly (YAY).

Every so often, I'll hear someone pronounce ye (the objective pronoun for you) in the same way. Remember that ye is YEE.

And then in writing, people often try to celebrate with someone else and mean a word that sounds like, "hip-hip-hooray" but spell it like this: yeah!

But yeah is a different word. It means "okay, sure," it's an affirmation.

So: "Did you do your homework?"

"Yeah."

If you want to celebrate, use either yea, or, since you don't mean anything scriptural, yay.


Revelation
The final book of the Bible is singular, not plural. John the Beloved recorded his revelation of the last days, and his book is called Revelation.

It's not RevelationS.

Please and thank you.


Psalms
The book in the Old Testament that has all those pretty songs is the book of Psalms.

However, if you refer to something within the book, you are referring to a specific psalm.

So a citation to the verse that reads, "The Lord is my shepherd" should read like this:

Psalm 23:1

That's singular, because you're referring to a single psalm. It's just like with the D&C: you refer to Section 76. You would never say, "Sections 76."

So it's NOT: Psalms 23:1

(Side note: Try typing "psalm" several times in a post. It'll start looking wrong and wonky.)


"in the name of Thy Son"
This is how we're taught to end prayers, right? THY ("your") makes sense, since we're talking to our Heavenly Father.

But have you ever heard someone end a talk or a testimony this way?

I have, and I don't like it.

This is a grammatical thing, but I mention it more because it's something that bothers me: it's clearly someone being thoughtless about what they're saying rather than truly honoring the Savior's name.

You can tell someone is just throwing out a rote phrase, because it doesn't make sense in context.

Think about it: if you're talking to a congregation, you aren't speaking about their son. So "in the name of Thy Son" makes absolutely no sense in that situation. To me, it's being disrespectful.




17 comments:

Susan Anderson said...

I never knew about shew!

But I did know the others, and the last one is a major pet peeve of mine.

=)

T.J. said...

Oo..oo....biggest pet peeve in sacrament meetings. "In the name of thy son..." I'm sorry, which one of us are you talking about and why are you taking his name like that? Ugh, I want to get up and punch someone for that! (okay, not really, but I do want to stand up and yell "In the name of HIS son...HIS....HIS!!!!!!! For the love of all that's good and precious, HIS!!!!!!!")
Okay, now that this is off my chest, I can back to my normal boring life.

Lara Neves said...

Love all of these. I knew to pronounce shew as show, but I never really put together that it was like sew. Cool.

And that last one really bugs me. Urgh.

Marsha Ward said...

Excellent post, Annette. Thanks.

As to your last point, this is why I always end talks or testimonies by saying, "in the name of Jesus Christ, etc." It's simpler, and there's no chance of flubbing it up.

Anonymous said...

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Rebecca Irvine said...

Great post - I, too, feel my skin crawl when that last one happens. Drives me crazy.

Collette said...

Can you post the Yea!/Yay!/Yeah. thing on Facebook? That one drives me crazy!!

Heidi said...

The "thy son" thing is a pet peeve of mine, too. No excuse for it, imho. I didn't know shew was pronounced show. Thank you! And thanks for your comment on my latest blog post. :)

Anna Maria Junus said...

Or to rescue yourself if in the middle of saying thy (which is really out of habit since we say it in prayers) is "in the name of The Son". But I agree with the poster who said "In the name of Jesus Christ."

Helena said...

Yea verily.

Jennie said...

I have to salute you, Annette. You have one of the most interesting and useful blogs I've run across. This is one I wish would find its way to every Gospel Doctrine class. Somehow I had never thought to associate shew with sew; what a great way to explain the proper pronunciation.

Annette Lyon said...

It's nice to see so many people agreeing on the last one--I worried I'd offend.

And Jennie, Thanks so much! That's quite the compliment.

Kathi Oram Peterson said...

I haven't stopped by your blog for a while. Love what you've done.

Great post. You always give such wonderful tips.

Kathi

Anonymous said...

Along the line of the "Book of Revelation" (not Revelations) example, another pet peeve I have is with people quoting the second article of faith and using "Adam's transgressions" when it should be "Adam's transgression."

TisforTonya said...

I still miss the days when the proper pronunciation of Ensign was actually printed inside the front cover of the magazine... that made the arguments pretty short.

Rebecca Blevins said...

I didn't know about "shew" either! Thanks!

The last one . . . oh, the last one. I cringe every time I hear it.

Stephanie said...

I totally agree, but I imagine most infractions of that last one are probably more often ignorance, nervousness, or carelessness more than disrespect. :)

Also, have you ever seen this series before? It looks right up your alley, and it's quite clever.

http://youtu.be/9OLxLK_R6jQ

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