Dr.

Marshall:

I have listened to many of your podcasts and find that I agree with you on
everything I have heard so far. I love that you are saying prayers in Latin and
encouraging others to do so. I have been a teacher of Latin using an immersion
method starting in 1985 (ecclesiastical pronunciation) with the ultimate goal that
my students are able to understand without translation the prayers of the Mass, the
Vulgate, and the Summa, inter alia. I listened to your podcast (4 Latin Prayers -
300) and found a few things about pronunciation that I would like to clarify with
you, for example, the fact that, as in English, "h" in Latin is sometimes
pronounced as an aspirant as in "hortus" (garden-horticulture) and sometimes
basically mute as in "hora" (hour-horological, horoscope). In the Ave Maria there
is no appreciable difference between "ora" (the singular present imperative "pray")
and "hora" just as there is no difference in pronunciation between the English
possessive adjective "our" (belonging or pertaining to us) and "hour" (at least in
reference to an "h" sound; in some regions the vowel sounds differ with the former
word sounding more like "are"). Also, in the Pater Noster, the word "voluntas" in
"Fiat voluntas tua" (Thy will be done) is not accented on the first syllable as in
the English derivatve "VOL-un-tar-y" but on the second (penultimate) syllable
because it is long "by nature" (not because the vowel "u" is long--it has the short
sound in "book" or "put" or "bush" (not "buck" or "putt" or "bus" or "dumb") and
not the long sound as in "boot" or "pool" or "rule"--but because it is followed by
two consonants "nt") thus, vo-LUN-tas similar to se-CUN-dum (second, following,
according to). I have some other observations and use a different "O Mi Jesu"
prayer, but I do not want to detract in any way from the great work you are doing
which deserves 5 stars, assuming that is the highest rating. (I could not get into
i-tunes leave a review and would rather make other comments to you privately in any
case.) As Chesterton says, "What is worth doing, is worth doing poorly." (A great
consoling thought in all our too human but very important endeavors)