# Why do evangelists-ah sound-ah that-ah way-ah?? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 10, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744 "2003-01-10T15:05:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gingersnap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f04885/32.png) [@gingersnap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gingersnap)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/1 "2003-01-10T15:05:18Z")
What is up with the weird way these guys talk, especially black preachers? Like instead of saying “The Lord told Moses”, they say something like the LORD-Ah! told MOses-ah". They add this -ah sound to half the words. What the hell? ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/2 "2003-01-10T15:10:39Z")
Maybe they watch too many Triple H promos? ---
**Author:** ![gingersnap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f04885/32.png) [@gingersnap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gingersnap)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/3 "2003-01-10T15:32:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kal \* > \*\*Maybe they watch too many Triple H promos? \*\* Huh? What’s Triple H? ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/4 "2003-01-10T15:38:27Z")
Triple H? I’m currently thinking of **Soul Glow** promotions myself, after reading the OP. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/5 "2003-01-10T15:41:25Z")
Triple H, ah, is a wrestler who, ah, is, ah, also known as, ah, the game, ah, and he tends to, ah, cut promos with, ah, lots of, ah, Ahs in them, ah. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/6 "2003-01-10T16:11:06Z")
They’ve been speaking like that for a long time. Paul Sorvino took on the inflection in [Oh, God!](http://us.imdb.com/Details?0076489) but God only knows where it started. Whatever its origin, I think they use it as a warning to the rest of us. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/7 "2003-01-10T16:12:50Z")
Especially if the evangelist is on TV, it’s a warning to change the channel. ---
**Author:** ![merge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9f8e36/32.png) [@merge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merge)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/8 "2003-01-10T16:21:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kal \* > \*\*Maybe they watch too many Triple H promos? \*\* yeah probably… they always follow him… they used to always be saying… “Letttsssss get ready to suuckkkk iiittttt” before preaching… back in the DX days… So its probably a good thing He switched personas… ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/9 "2003-01-10T17:09:19Z")
SWAG alert: It seems common in lower-class Southern dialects to shorten or drop ending consonants in words. Perhaps preachers from there, or influenced by urban Northern accents derived from Southern ones via domestic immigration, have practiced adding a final vowel sound to words in order to make sure they have pronounced all the consonants, and thereby sound better educated. Or maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/10 "2003-01-10T17:24:25Z")
Or it could be the “Chuck Yeager” effect. After he broke the sound barrier, other pilots started, probably not even entirely consciously, speaking with a rural West Virginia “twang” while flying…a kind of hero worship, in a way. Maybe there was some famous evangelical preacher (my guess is Billy Sunday, but I haven’t heard him talk) who talked like that, and so later evangelical preachers just got it into their head “That’s how preachers talk”. ---
**Author:** ![japatlgt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df705f/32.png) [@japatlgt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/japatlgt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/11 "2003-01-10T18:09:08Z")
My opinion is that it is just a commonly used syntax among fudamentalist preachers. Monkey SEE-ah, monkey DO-ah. Forevermore. ---
**Author:** ![johnboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e47c2d/32.png) [@johnboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnboy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/12 "2003-01-10T19:20:07Z")
Hey Coldfire, if lovin’ the Lord is wrong, I don’t wanna be right! Just let your Soul Glow… Brought to you by Soul Glow Hair Spritz! ---
**Author:** ![Siemsi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b19c9b/32.png) [@Siemsi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siemsi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/13 "2003-01-10T19:30:41Z")
I’m laughing my ass-ah off-ah right now-ah. I’ve often wondered about that myself. Why? Why, Lord, why!? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/14 "2003-01-10T20:26:07Z")
You refer, of course, to _ **evonics** _, the tongue of the evangelical exhortation-slinger. Note also the distinctive way they say JEEEEE-zuhss, the habit of putting an equal stress on every syllable of multisyllabic words, and the pitch-quaver on vowel sounds. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/15 "2003-01-10T20:41:47Z")
It appears to be an affectation of a state of emotional frenzy so intense as to require the speaker to gasp audibly between each syllable he utters. ---
**Author:** ![SpaceDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spacedog/32/9932_2.png) [@SpaceDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpaceDog)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/16 "2003-01-10T22:30:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kal \* > \*\*Maybe they watch too many Triple H promos? \*\* Despite the fact that that’s going to go over (or under) the head of lots of people I found it funny. Even more so 'cos I happen to be watching the man himself when I opened this thread. As to the OP – no idea, maybe they just think that’s what they’re supposed to do. Sorry, I’ll shut up now. SD ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/17 "2003-01-10T22:45:10Z")
While not a preacher, Sam Phillips (of Sun Records fame) has that intonation. I searched in vain for a real audio interview of him (found some of another ‘Sam Phillips’ instead). But I remember one interview he gave on Jerry Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire”. “I knew thatah sawwwng was not about…foot-ballsah, I knew it wasn’t aboutah no…base-ballsah…what the hell kind of ballsah could the sawwwng have been aboutah”. \*the ‘ah’ represents a schwa sound, or else it’s going to sound more like Chico Marx-speak. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/18 "2003-01-10T23:18:20Z")
That reminds me. We don’t usually watch that sort of thing, but a couple of months ago we watched one of the _Left Behind_ movies. Even if you’re not Christian the concept behind the series could lend itself to some very powerful films; instead they’re mainly characterized by tired cliches from what I’ve seen. In this installment, immediately after millions of people have disappeared due to Rapture, the evil Russian general secretary of the evil one-worldish U.N. is granted emergency powers, which he then uses to abolish religion. Anyway, the protagonists of this movie get this very prominent Rabbi to say, on international TV, that JC is the Messiah and Son of God. What’s funny is through most of the movie he has a thick Hebrew accent, and when he speaks at the end of the movie, after converting to Christianity, he sounds just like the preachers mentioned in the OP. It was an amazing linguistic conversion. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/19 "2003-01-11T06:37:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kaylasdad99 \* > \*\*It appears to be an affectation of a state of emotional frenzy so intense as to require the speaker to gasp audibly between each syllable he utters. \*\* IMO, this is exactly it. And they do it, I believe, to whip up the listeners to that same kind of frenzy, getting them caught up in emotion. I think there really is a “feel-good” aspect to the whole thing, making the audience feel as though they were riding a Tilt-a-Whirl at triple speed. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/20 "2003-01-11T07:21:03Z")
I think they do it to sound stupid. 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744.md?page=2)