Bet-leh-[ehm

Salieri

That reminds me of the arrangement from a generation ago by the inimitable Joel Cohen and the Boston Camerata:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5rwe5p0k5k

Given the hymn's provenance, there is also a case for θ.

Andrew,

Wouldn't it be wenn-nightie?

@Richard Mix Our classics scholar demands we pronounce it in a greek style, our former director of music demanded a latin style. Most people could not tell the difference! Anyway the last couple of years no comment has been made, I suspect that we are singing something in between!

Italianate ecclesiastical Latin and modern Greek are the only legitimate pronunciations for Catholic liturgical use in English-speaking countries.

Both propositions seem pretty dubious, and whatever "modern Greek" might be it's not always clear to me that's what the transliterations in the Roman books are aiming at. Thanks though, the two previous threads seem to have covered a lot of ground.

Just as silly is to mispronounce ecclesiastical Latin with phonemes found in no Romance language or Italian, as is often found in North America. Whether it's the absurdly wet plosives or completely uncoordinated and unrounded vowels lifted from American English, many make a caricature of the language by adhering hard-line to their distorted idea of what it should be (just like the HIP crew when their phrasing becomes too clipped and their instruments too rickety, and a complete mockery is made)

But, it does see a bit silly to intentionally mispronounce church Latin in a performance of a Mozart Mass because they did it in Salzburg in Mozart's day.

However, some of that "mispronunciation" is actually the way Germans and others (like the Poles) still, to this day, pronounce Latin--and it's not a "Protestant" thing. I have two people in my choir who are off-the-boat Polish, one emigrated in the 1980s, the other in the 2000s, and they both (along with many of the older people, children of immigrants, that are still alive and still remember the old ways and the old Mass) say "Ah-Gnoos Dei, Kvee tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis Pah-tsem.", AND say that the Italianate pronunciation sounds silly---particularly because they cannot discern a clear distinction between Agnus (Ah-nyoos) Dei, and Anus (Ah-noos) Dei, and to be honest, the way the most people pronounce Agnus does end up sounding like their saying Anus--so, in deference to my parish's Polish heritage, I have my choir pronounce the G in Agnus. (I also have them sing Io as Eye-oh, when we sing "Ding-dong merrily".)

"Eye-oh" for Io is the West Pondelian English rendering ... of a West Pondelian English text, so it doesn't bother me a bit (in fact, I prefer it!). Since moving back to the Midwest, I've had to deal with the pronunciation "Montisello" for towns around here named, presumably, for Thomas Jefferson's home "Monticello" (Virginia) - and for which, Mr Jefferson insisted upon the Italianate pronunciation "Montichello" ... oh well!!

I know Cairo, IL very well, although the pronunciation is closer to Karo (as in Karo Syrup). And don't forget about Byew-nuh Vista, a.k.a. Buena Vista, VA .. not to mention Stanton (but spelled Staunton), VA.