ASK FATHER… ASK EVERYONE: Find recording of Archbp. Léonard imitating different regional Latin pronunciations

From a reader…

QUAESITUM EST:

A few years ago you posted a YouTube video (audio only) of Archbishop Léonard imitating the accents of various professors speaking Latin: https://wdtprs.com/2016/03/fun-with-latin-with-archbp-leonard/.

It was hysterical! I actually shared it with students in my Latin oratory course, to appreciate different pronunciation. Plus, it was funny. I mentioned this video to priests at our local FSSP mission, and promised to send a link. (They were over for dinner, and they were joking about how TLM priests from different countries pronounce Latin.) However, when I found the video again, embedded on your site, it is locked.

I have no real understanding of how YouTube works. Would have any idea where I might look to find a copy of this recording, on YouTube or otherwise?

This is an unimportant matter, but any help would be most appreciated.

Yes, that was really funny.  I’ve tried to find another “copy” but I haven’t had any luck.

Anyone? Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard

And it is so true.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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6 Comments

  1. Ipsitilla says:

    Not sure if it’s helpful, but the Youtube channel belongs to Joël Devillet, and the original title of the video was “cours de latin Mgr Léonard.”

  2. David says:

    Father, although it doesn’t solve the video mystery, here is something regarding different Latin pronunciations that may interest you as a devoted Latinist. It has now become de rigueur for top classical early music choirs to sing Catholic polyphony using the Latin pronunciation of the composer’s place and time. For instance, the Latin of a Magnificat by the great English composer William Byrd should be pronounced differently that the same text set by the great Italian composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. One example: “sicut erat in principio” should be sung as “prin-chee-pio” for Palestrina, but as “prin-see-pio” for Byrd. The excellent book “Singing Early Music”, ed. Timothy J. McGee, Indiana University Press 1996 (ISBN 0-253-32961-2) covers Renaissance Latin pronunciation in detail for Britain, France, the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, and Germany and the Low Countries. It’s an interesting subject.

  3. robtbrown says:

    When anyone in my Koine’ Greek class would seek the “correct” pronunciation of a word, the prof would say:

    I don’t know. We’re still waiting for the discovery of the Dead Sea cassettes.

  4. FRLBJ says:

    It was reported to me that for the liturgy, the Roman (Italian) pronunciation must be used since Vatican I specified this. Outside the liturgy anything goes. In the German and Polish areas, the folk pronunciation was often used even in the liturgy. Vatican I tried to unify the pronunciation for the Holy Mass. Problem is that Germans are Germans and do not want to follow Rome. German priests instructed us to pronounce Latin like German, except for the few Roman consonant and vowel changes. It was explained that German was tremendously influenced by the Romans.

  5. JabbaPapa says:

    Ipsitilla :

    Not sure if it’s helpful, but the Youtube channel belongs to Joël Devillet, and the original title of the video was “cours de latin Mgr Léonard.”

    I found a direct link to the YouTube video, and it is now marked as “Private” and cannot be watched.

  6. orcuttg says:

    I have a copy; I downloaded this from youtube in 2020 because I’m a skeptical old man who figured if it was on the internet, and it was good, it was doomed.
    I have uploaded an unlisted video, in hopes it will survive the youtube censors longer:
    https://youtu.be/4B-gsk5vRS8

Comments are closed.