What languages are spoken here?

[OCLittleFlower]

I read Latin fairly well and there aren't any native speakers to complain about my accent.

bad latin pronunciation, particularly during chanting is the worst


it can be very distracting especially during the liturgy when the priest sounds distinctly 'murican and has such a clear hickish accent that comes through...i have a hard time not focusing on anything else.  bad bad bad.  it's especially upsetting when these are priests that came from traditional catholic seminaries where you cant blame it on bad formation. 

suppose it is better than novus ordo and "on eagles wings' but still like nails on a chalkboard

In Europe, you can tell roughly which country a priest comes from based on his Latin alone... There seems to still be some accents in Latin too... Although I do not know if there are supposed to be...

It's rather unavoidable, I would think, since they don't grow up speaking Latin.  The languages you learn at a young age color your accent in languages you learn later (so I have a somewhat Italian sounding accent in Russian because I learned the little bits of Italian as a young kid -- it sounds a little like a Moscow accent, and people often assume I'm the American-raised kid of Muscovite parents).

[JubilateDeo]

All of our Institute of Christ the King priests speak and chant beautiful Latin.  They come from many different parts of the world, and while a lot of them have different quirks and styles in the way they say the Mass, they are all beautiful and reflect a type of priestly formation that is really hard to come by.  I don't know if they were all this good at chant before they started seminary, but I can't imagine that they all had natural singing talent.    I also have known wonderful (usually diocesan) priests who just don't have the chant thing down right, probably because they never received any sort of training.  Not everybody can go to seminary in Griciliagno.  I'm sure everyone is doing their best, but nobody does it quite like the Institute

[JubilateDeo]

All that being said, our French priest's accent is so thick that we have joked about chipping in so he could take an accent reduction class.  I'm sure his sermons are wonderful, I just can only understand every other word of them.

[abc123]

Currently studying Russian and know enough Old Church Slavonic to be able to get through a Divine Liturgy at a Russian Orthodox church.

[Perpetua]

Pronouncing Latin with a heavy English accent is the worst. It's something with the R's far back towards the soft palate and it comes out especially when some English-speakers say Miserere or Patris etc. The R's are supposed to be pronounced at the alveolar ridge in the hard palate.
The other thing that gets to me is pronouncing Domine - Domin-eeeeyyyy. It's Domin-eh. An E in the end is pronounced -eh, not -ey. Even inside words it's still not EY, but EH.
The Frenchmen's R's are not very nice to hear when they speak/sing Latin either.

[Ulrich Von Lichtenstein]

Currently studying Russian and know enough Old Church Slavonic to be able to get through a Divine Liturgy at a Russian Orthodox church.

An Orthodox friend of mine taught me to chant the Jesus Prayer in Church Slavonic, just like the Valaam Choir chant it. Beautiful.

[abc123]

Currently studying Russian and know enough Old Church Slavonic to be able to get through a Divine Liturgy at a Russian Orthodox church.

An Orthodox friend of mine taught me to chant the Jesus Prayer in Church Slavonic, just like the Valaam Choir chant it. Beautiful.

Fantastic! I recently came across this vid which you may find edifying:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92VmUEi9lKs&list=LL8Z1zBXGQ1fENLhKs8F1Kyw&index=8[/yt]

[Jayne]

Pronouncing Latin with a heavy English accent is the worst. It's something with the R's far back towards the soft palate and it comes out especially when some English-speakers say Miserere or Patris etc. The R's are supposed to be pronounced at the alveolar ridge in the hard palate.
The other thing that gets to me is pronouncing Domine - Domin-eeeeyyyy. It's Domin-eh. An E in the end is pronounced -eh, not -ey. Even inside words it's still not EY, but EH.
The Frenchmen's R's are not very nice to hear when they speak/sing Latin either.

Since you were bilingual from childhood, you developed two phonological systems and the ability to switch between them. Your brain processes language differently from monolinguals. You are fortunate to have such a gift.  As you have noticed, it is easier for you to learn languages than it is for most people.

There is a risk when people have this gift (or perhaps any gift or talent) that we would look down on those who do not have it.  When it comes to Latin, we can end up with people looking down on and criticising priests for their Latin language abilities.  The attitude that we ought to have toward priests is respect and gratitude.  This is especially true when it comes to priests who are willing to say Mass in Latin when they are under no obligation to do so. 

As far as the current rules in the Church are concerned, every priest could say Mass in the vernacular using his native language.  Then nobody would be able to criticize their Latin accents. We would also be deprived of the Tridentine Mass.  It is such an enormous blessing to have access to the TLM when the vast majority of people do not.  It seems to me that our gratitude for this blessing would lead us to be reasonable in our expectations for our priests mastery of Latin.

[aquinas138]

Speak English and a bit of German. Reading knowledge of German, French, Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Coptic (Sahidic and Bohairic mostly, but I did pass doctoral exams in other dialects, for whatever that's worth ). Less confident reading knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic (need a dictionary ready at hand). I can "fake" reading through Italian and Spanish most of the time, and I studied a bit of classical Armenian in grad school—I don't remember much beyond the opening of the Our Father, the alphabet, and some common words. Teaching myself a bit of Church Slavonic when I have time, which I don't. Would love to learn Russian and Polish. Would benefit from some familiarity with Middle Persian.

[Perpetua]

Pronouncing Latin with a heavy English accent is the worst. It's something with the R's far back towards the soft palate and it comes out especially when some English-speakers say Miserere or Patris etc. The R's are supposed to be pronounced at the alveolar ridge in the hard palate.
The other thing that gets to me is pronouncing Domine - Domin-eeeeyyyy. It's Domin-eh. An E in the end is pronounced -eh, not -ey. Even inside words it's still not EY, but EH.
The Frenchmen's R's are not very nice to hear when they speak/sing Latin either.

Since you were bilingual from childhood, you developed two phonological systems and the ability to switch between them. Your brain processes language differently from monolinguals. You are fortunate to have such a gift.  As you have noticed, it is easier for you to learn languages than it is for most people.

There is a risk when people have this gift (or perhaps any gift or talent) that we would look down on those who do not have it.  When it comes to Latin, we can end up with people looking down on and criticising priests for their Latin language abilities.  The attitude that we ought to have toward priests is respect and gratitude.  This is especially true when it comes to priests who are willing to say Mass in Latin when they are under no obligation to do so. 

As far as the current rules in the Church are concerned, every priest could say Mass in the vernacular using his native language.  Then nobody would be able to criticize their Latin accents. We would also be deprived of the Tridentine Mass.  It is such an enormous blessing to have access to the TLM when the vast majority of people do not.  It seems to me that our gratitude for this blessing would lead us to be reasonable in our expectations for our priests mastery of Latin.

I wasn't aiming it at priests but at choir members who have had practice in pronunciation by other native English speakers. Some just refuse to even try learning it right. But yes, you are right, I should be more humble.

[Jayne]

I wasn't aiming it at priests but at choir members who have had practice in pronunciation by other native English speakers. Some just refuse to even try learning it right. But yes, you are right, I should be more humble.

I think that what looks like "refusing to try" can sometimes be manifested by people who actually feel overwhelmed by difficulty.  It might be hard for someone who finds the same task very easy to relate to it.

At any rate, I have no right to tell anyone to be more humble when I struggle with pride so much myself.  However, I am pleased that you resolve to be more humble, since practically everyone needs to. 

[Miriam_M]

The Frenchmen's R's are not very nice to hear when they speak/sing Latin either.

To each her own. 
I personally love Latin said with a French accent -- which is lucky for me because I hear it constantly.   

Answering OP's question:  Reading knowledge of Latin and French.   Excellent pronunciation of both, but rusty on the fluency/speed of my conversational French.

[Ulrich Von Lichtenstein]

At any rate, I have no right to tell anyone to be more humble when I struggle with pride so much myself.  However, I am pleased that you resolve to be more humble, since practically everyone needs to. 

You could both learn from me. I am very humble. I am exceedingly humble. One could travel far and wide in this world and still never come across someone quite so magnificently resplendent in brilliant rays of shining humility such as myself. In fact, I take great pride in my humility.

[Christina_S]

At any rate, I have no right to tell anyone to be more humble when I struggle with pride so much myself.  However, I am pleased that you resolve to be more humble, since practically everyone needs to. 

You could both learn from me. I am very humble. I am exceedingly humble. One could travel far and wide in this world and still never come across someone quite so magnificently resplendent in brilliant rays of shining humility such as myself. In fact, I take great pride in my humility.

Oh yeah? Bet I can be humbler!

Anything you can be-humble-at, I can be-humbler-at it. Sooner or later, I'm meeker than you!

[MilesChristi]

Humility and How I achieved it