I cant do it. Sorry.

What if you're not good at singing? Then I guess you can't cant.

I understand some German philosophers are also poor liturgical singers. For example, Kant can't cant.

Kant can't cant cant.

The horse got away and canted home, aghast at the canting he heard from the cantoress who we hope will go forth and cant no more?

How do you all deal with ain't over there? Or ain't there no way to do this? Or do you use the h?

Common usage in the US ain't going to change cantor and cantored, they are here to stay.

What will a cantor do if a cantor can't cant chant.
Along came a sage with the Kant-esque name Immanuel,
when given neumic runes, to his knees he fell,
saying, I'm a Kant, not a cantor, who can't cant chant.
Signed: I would if I could, but I can't, so I won't. I. Kant.

Bobby, the original post had "United" spelled incorrectly. I always find it funny when someone correcting another's spelling or grammar makes their own mistakes.

Robin is right!
Canting is what a cantor or a cantrix does.
But then, this would not be the first time a noun had been verbified.

Why not just Englishify it all and say that chanting is done by a chanter.
After all, a cantor (or a cantrix) is a chanter who chants chant.

Wasn't there an ABBA song, Take a Chants on Me? Now did they cant it or chant it? And what could it mean?

Right. And don't forget, "It's my last dance, last Chants for love..." which is about the end of disco.

Many times, they cant. Often times, they shouldn't.

Cantors chant. Choirs chant. PIPs chant. None cant.

It's about time.

Untied States- that's funny (and I believe intentionally so).
Dyslexics: UNTIE!
Dyslexics have more fnu.

Is it really Cantrix and not Cantress? In any case, they aren't cantors.

So, a chanteuse need not apply?

Chanteuse? Well, yes, if we were French (that is) it would be chanteur - chanteuse.
Now, how about German? Is there a feminine form of kantor?

And, Fr Krisman:
It's not at all true that 'none cant'!
I'm sure that you are familiar with this breed:
they are otherwise known as complainers...
about most anything that is handy to complain about.
Their cant knows no end.

@MJO: A female cantor would be called "Kantorin" in German.

That.

When I chant, often I can 'til late, so here we go:

cantillate (v. i.) : To chant; to recite with musical tones.

Not vague but very precise: "I'm cantillating at mass today."

I'm cantillating at mass today.

If the dialogues from the RM are sung by the priest and people, they're all cantillating.

By the way, how long has cantoring at Mass, in the sense of leading congregational song, been a thing?

Based on personal anecdata, not before the 're-introduction' of the responsorial psalm. But that's just my recollection.

Cantors are not a Vatican II fabrication. They existed in quite early times, were highly regarded, skilled chanters, and were sometimes ordained. They sang from cantatoria, books which contained the texts which were to be chanted (more probably, cantillated), but, of course, had no musical notation. They were very highly trained masters of the vocal art of delivering sacred texts. These were, of course, a very different breed from those who today imagine themselves to be cantors because they sing a few lines out of Respond and Acclaim or some such over a microphone. Nor did they gyrate and fling their arms around in a great narcissistic display. As for the responsorial psalm: it is nothing new: the Gradual IS what is left of a responsorial psalm. (Somewhere in Edward Foley's book about the music of the pre-Constantinian Church we read that there was a canon passed forbidding cantors to use curling irons in their hair. Vanity, vanity.... it, too, is ancient.)

(sorry that was for MT)

Do cantors canter canting chant?

As an English teacher, I have to just say that words develop the way they develop and the change cannot be stopped, particularly if it is useful. "Sorbet" and "sherbet" both derived from the Arabic word (as I recall, or Turkish) for "fruit juice," and until the craze for "sorbet" in the 1980s, you could use them interchangeably. Even James Beard did so in his cookbooks. But then it turned out that people preferred it without any dairy in it, so "sorbet" became different than "sherbert," and no one, not even my grandmother, could stop "sherbet" from becoming "shebert."

My own favorite is "forte." People like to say that it should be pronounced "fort," because it is French and "that is how they pronounce it." There are two problems with that. First, the French do not pronounce it "fort." They pronounce it "forte," just Frenchly (with a very quiet final "e.") Are we supposed to use the French "r?" Heavens.

And more importantly, if we use it in English, it is not longer a French word and we may pronounce it as we want to. Every dictionary from the OED down says "fortay," for the simple reason that it is a useful distinction. Sometime in the 18th Century, it picked up the pronunciation of the Italian musical direction, because that makes it clear you are talking about someone's "strong point."

So "kyrie." In chanting Latin, it's "kee-ree-eh." In English conversation (as you only chant it in Latin), it's "kih--ree-ay." "Kyrie" has become an English word.

Which will do nothing to stop the discussion.

Kenneth