There was a boy in one of my classes in high school named Stevephen. Pronounced “Steven,” but most of us accidentally called him “Steve-uh-ven” at least once.
“Should we spell it with a V or a PH?”
“I don’t know, let’s just go with both.”
Goes to show me. Around here (USA, specifially Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas), Vie’-ruhl is how we pronounce the word when associated with viruses, like viral pneumonia. So Vih-rahl’ is unusual. YMMV, handle with care.
When I was in the high school choir we performed a rendition of Dixit from Mozart’s Vesperes Solemnes De Confessores. Since some of my peers weren’t ‘getting it’, the choir master pulled out a Bible and gave us a translation of what we were singing. If I recall correctly (but note that it was the only six months I learned or spoke any Latin at all) it was…
Dixit!
Domineus.
Domino meio
Sede, Sede
A Dextris Meis
…(etcetera etcetera).
…and the translation we were given was…
Dixit! (A name)
This is God.
You (will be) a King of mine.
Sit, sit.
Here on my right hand side.
[In other words, “Hey, Dixit, God makes you his right-hand man.”]
So, with that interpretation, I can easily imagine someone with a slight exposure (like mine) to classical music and either Handel’s or Mozart’s Vespere Solemnes De Confessores and the *Dixit *passage.
I learned that stuff in the early 1980’s, well before The Internet was full of all sorts of easily accessible translations of all sorts of stuff. From a bit more research into the matter, I see that there are more accurate interpretations (though I’m still ignorant of the overall context). A page dealing with Handel’s version of Dixit suggests…
It was said[COLOR=Black]*
By God
To my lord
“Sit, sit, here on my right side.”[/COLOR]
…etcetera, etcetera…
[In other words, someone (a wife? a serf?) is saying "I overheard when God said to my lord (husband? Man of the manor?) come and be His right-hand man, etcetera, etcetera.]
*Which makes more sense if dixit is the past-participle of the Latin speak or say – di being included in the modern spanish “diga” = say or speak and the modern English “dictate” = to speak to an audience (like someone who is taking notes or obeying orders).
–G!
Uchitali Russki yzik
Estudié Español
Nihongo o’ benkyoshimashta
NOW IT’S ALL CONFUSING