Well, thanks to all of you who answered my pleas for last-minute
reassurance!
I had asked whether anyone could confirm that the word Jesus was pronounced
with or without the final "s" in Latin. My choir director had shaken my
convinctions by asking us to drop the "s" from the word written, "Jesus",
not "Jesu". I checked the actual prayer in many sources and the word used is
"Jesus".
I didn't exactly receive a consensus, but certainly a wealth of information
including:
From Daniel Sumner:"The use of "Jesu" and "Jesus" (SNIP) is dictated by the
grammatical place of the name in a given sentence. My Latin grammar is rusty
from school days, but I remember that much. That means the employment of
"Jesu" in place of "Jesus" is
grammatically incorrect and not just a stylistic choice. In the case of "Et
Benedictus, fructus ventris tui, Jesus", "Jesu" (which I think is the
vocative case) would be wrong."
From Jan Stumke: "I believe your choir director mixed up "Jesus" and "Jesu",
both of which exist in Latin, "Jesus" being the nominative form and "Jesu"
the vocative, genitive, or ablative (if I remember right). "
From Jeffey Joel: "Jesu (yesu) is both nominative and accustaive cases. In
the Ave Maria it's accusative."
From natural@w...: There are no silent letters in latin; however,
latin nouns are
inflected for case, and both Jesu and Jesus occur, depending on
the grammatical usage.
And my favorite!:
From Ian Belsey: "Just to let you know about your 's' in Jesus. I consulted
a priest friend of mine and he told me that it made absolutely no difference
whether you voice the 's' or not!"
Well there you have it. I struck the poor happy medium and sang "s" in my
solo at 8:30 and obligingly dropped it for the 10:30 anthem.
Thanks to everyone for dusting off your Latin books and helping! And a
belated Happy Mother's Day to all!
Laura Sharp
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