Christmas carol pronunciation

In My Humble Opinion
1

How do you say the first word of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.

I’m not including a poll because I don’t want to bias the answers. Same reason I didn’t include the word in the title. I will include why I’m asking in a spoiler:

[I’ve apparently been pronouncing it wrong, as Jesu is an English word pronounced JEE-z(y)oo. I wonder if YAY-zoo has taken over enough that I can say it’s also an English pronunciation. I think Jesu sounds like you are a hick who doesn’t know how to pronounce anything, sorta like if you correctly pronounce victuals.]

I’m not sure if I have to say this, but don’t click the spoiler until you’ve answered, please.

2

Yay-zoo.

That’s a Christmas carol?

3

Like this: Pie Jesu* Domine dona eis requiem

*This word can also be spelled another way, the point of your OP.

And the quote in the video is ultimately from Dies Irae.

4

Ditto.

I’ve never seen/heard it as a Christmas carol. I think it’s part of a bigger cantata.

Wikipedia agrees. It’s the 10th movement of Bach’s Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147 (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life).

5

Eeeeay-sssue.

Jay-sue sounds like you’ve never participated in a church choir with an overly-devoted choir-master. Or like you’re a hick. Either one.

6

I don’t think I’ve ever said it out loud more than once, but in my head it sounds like Jay Zoo.

7

Yay-zoo.

As in German.

8

There are people who don’t associate it with christmas?

9

This, though I’m pretty sure I’ve NEVER pronounced it out loud.

10

I’ve always heard, said, and sung it as “yay-zoo”, never anything else.

And I think of it as wedding song far more than a Christmas song.

11

Yes. Most of us, I’m betting.

12

Yay-zoo.

13

I’ma call you Patrick Star from now on cuz you live under a rock.

Seriously, it’s so in the cultural mindset that It’s All Relative, a campy sitcom from the early 2000s had a character remark that of course the gay couple would be playing Jesu in their holiday music mix.

14

Yay-zoo

15

Yay-soo

16

Jee-zyu, since the rest of the words are in English. See also the Angel of the Agony in The Dream of Gerontius. Yay-zoo if the rest of the words are in Latin. Context is everything, I mean, it’s not like you’ve never heard “Jesus” pronounced “Hay-zooss”, is it?

17

Recently, I associate it with this Japanese commercial.

Put me in the YAY-SOO camp as well.

18

In my head, I’ve always said “Jeh-soo,” but I guess that’s wrong. I’ve only ever read it. Both Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin would be (close to) Yay-soo, no /z/ (source for Church Latin pronunciation: A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin).

Fun fact: in Welsh, Iesu is the ordinary word for Jesus and it’s pronounced “Yessie.”

19

I’ve always said “JAY-zoo.”

Now I gotta go listen to some of my old Bach motets…

20

Jay-Zoo. Possibly the full name for which Jay-Z is the nickname.