# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/21 "2003-01-11T08:24:36Z")
I personally like it. There’s this televangelist up here named Peter Popoff, flogging healing through “Jaeee-zus!” to anyone willing to part with dough in the bill denominations. I like listening to him, but only because he’s on late at night, and has the most soothing voice (I’m sure he’s practiced it) ever. Always makes me stop watching tv and head to bed. I keep meaning to make an audio tape of him in case I’m ever overcome with insomnia, but the thought of leaving him on to yak into my subconciousness kinda scares me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/22 "2003-01-11T10:27:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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. \*\* **Kaylasdad99** has it. It also helps the vocalization become more rhythmic, and therefore more compelling. You don’t have to worry about the rhythm of the words you’re saying if you’re regularly injecting a vocal gasp at the appropriate points. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/23 "2003-01-11T11:27:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nanoda \* > \*\*I keep meaning to make an audio tape of him in case I’m ever overcome with insomnia, but the thought of leaving him on to yak into my subconciousness kinda scares me. 🙂 \*\* Waitress: “Would you like another Coke?” **Nanoda** : “Way-ul, JAY-Zuss is-uh gunnah hay-ul this Co-kah and Bring it Back-uh to LAH-FUH! BUH-LEEV! BUH-LEEV! BUH-LEEV!” :: Nanoda splashes waitress with melty ice and a little Coke. :: :: Waitress smacks Nanoda upside the head. :: **Nanoda** : “PRAY-UHS DA LAH-UD! AH CAN SEE!” Yes, I can see how that could be a problem. ---
**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, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/24 "2003-01-11T13:12:29Z")
Soothing? Compelling? That would never have occurred to me, as I find it grating, obnoxious, and repellant. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/25 "2003-01-11T13:17:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by OpalCat \* > \*\*Soothing? Compelling? That would never have occurred to me, as I find it grating, obnoxious, and repellant. \*\* All the better for making your mind decide that the dream world _is_ a good place to be. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/26 "2003-01-11T13:34:44Z")
It’s caused by failure to breathe properly while orating. Preachers who end up sounding that way usually start out ordinary enough, but as their adrenaline begins to flow and they talk faster and longer and louder, their diaphrams start squeezing hard to empty their old breath so they will breathe new air. What you hear is this expulsion of breath through the preacher’s vocal chords. It’s been a phenomenon for a long time. C. H. Spurgeon wrote for the July, 1875 _Sword and Trowel_, [“Hints on the Voice For Young Preachers”](http://www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/voice.htm): > [@](#): > > It is an infliction, not to be endured twice, to hear a brother, who mistakes perspiration for inspiration, tear along like a wild horse with a hornet in its ear till he has no more wind, and must needs pause to pump his lungs full again; a repetition of this indecency several times in a sermon is not uncommon, but is most painful. Pause soon enough to prevent that “hough, hough,” which rather creates pity for the breathless orator than sympathy with the subject in hand. Your audience ought not to know that you breathe at all—the process of respiration should be as unobserved as the circulation of the blood. It is indecent to let the mere animal function of breathing cause any hiatus in your discourse. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/27 "2003-01-11T15:00:31Z")
It might be what happens to you when you say the same things over and over again. Anecdotally, in Cardiff, Wales, where I went to college, there was a little old guy selling the evening paper, and shouting out the paper’s name: the Echo. Except he’d been doing it for so long, it had mutated into “yick-yo!” (one day I saw him when he had laryngitis - he’d recorded his voice shouting “yick-yo” onto a tape loop that he was playing). Also, many years ago, I sold little toy Chinese dragons on the street in London and Oxford. I started my patter of bullshit thus: “Chinese dragons! Only £1.50! As used on the Long March! Chinese dragons! Outlawed as decadent during the Cultural Revolution, but you can get them here, and they’re only £1.50”. However, after a few weeks of shouting the same thing, my words had become twisted: “Chyyyinese dragons-aah! Only one pound fifty-aah! As used on the Long March-aaah,” etc., and with the weirdest intonation, that I couldn’t prevent. ---
**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 11, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/28 "2003-01-11T15:32:43Z")
It seems like nearly anyone who has to repeatedly say the same things will evolve unusual pronunciations. The image of a newsboy hawking papers while he chants “Wuxtry! Wuxtry” (Extra! Extra!) is well known from old movies and books. Similarly, on the trains between San Diego and L.A. you often used to hear the conductors call out “Santy Ana!” when approaching Santa Ana. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/29 "2003-01-11T16:41:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\*Also, many years ago, I sold little toy Chinese dragons on the street in London and Oxford. I started my patter of bullshit thus: “Chinese dragons! Only £1.50! As used on the Long March! Chinese dragons! Outlawed as decadent during the Cultural Revolution, but you can get them here, and they’re only £1.50”. However, after a few weeks of shouting the same thing, my words had become twisted: “Chyyyinese dragons-aah! Only one pound fifty-aah! As used on the Long March-aaah,” etc., and with the weirdest intonation, that I couldn’t prevent. \*\* Oh my God, that annoying fucker was _you_?? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/30 "2003-01-11T20:00:40Z")
> [@](#): > > 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… Only in the UFMCC!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/31 "2003-01-12T12:46:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Coldfire \* > \*\*Oh my God, that annoying fucker was _you_?? 😃 \*\* You still bought one, didn’tcha? 😃 It must have been when I said “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas-ah. These are just for Christmas-ah. They’re cheap, they’re shoddy, they’ll break after 2 hours, but at least the kids’ll be quiet for that amount of time-ah!” ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/32 "2003-01-12T15:52:07Z")
I had a friend (Canadian), who found god, took on that affected preacher accent, ended every sentence with “pa-RAY-as-be-to-gawd,” and lost the ability to talk about anything but the sins of those around him. He eventually went off into the woods to live as a carpenter. I had another friend (Canadian) who found god, took on that affected preacher accent, started having visions of JAY-sus including one causing her to fling her LP records over the roof of her house, and generally cried a lot while occasionally flopping down on the ground and speaking in tongues. She eventually lost the religion, lost the accent, lost the flopping about and speaking in tongues, but kept the crying bouts and set out on a multi-year sex binge. I had yet another friend (Canadian) who found god, took on that affected preacher accent, went to work for an abattoir, and shortly thereafter was placed in a residential psychiatric institution. That was about the time I started thinking of fundie religion and that awful affected accent as a mental disease rather than a faith. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/33 "2003-01-12T15:56:35Z")
I had a friend who found canada. Or so he claims. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/34 "2003-01-13T05:15:29Z")
Why? Because it helped-ah Joshu-ah fight the battle ah Jericho-ah, it helped-ah Daniel-ah get out the lion’s den-ah, it helped-ah Gilligan-ah get off the island-ah! ---
**Author:** ![Mingo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/22d042/32.png) [@Mingo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mingo)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/35 "2003-01-13T14:48:09Z")
Muffin, not to split hairs or be annoying, but why do you identify your friends as (Canadian). Seeing that you’re from Canada yourself, I would assume that must of the people you know are also. was there some reason I’m not aware of? I do agree the funie types of religion begin to look like mental illness. when I was in nurse’s school doing my psych rotation the folks in charge of the mental ward said that “religious pre-occupation” was a very common symtom. they also found they had to strong discourage visits by the patient’s pastors, as they tended to stir the whole population up. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/36 "2003-01-13T16:22:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\*You still bought one, didn’tcha? 😃 It must have been when I said “A dog is for life, not just for Christmas-ah. These are just for Christmas-ah. They’re cheap, they’re shoddy, they’ll break after 2 hours, but at least the kids’ll be quiet for that amount of time-ah!” \*\* Were you standing outside a pie and mash shop dressed as a pearly king? now, where’s me washboard? ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/37 "2003-01-14T00:51:16Z")
I noted that they were Canadian because there was a huge difference between the accents they had and the accents they assumed. The changes were totally affectatious. ---
**Author:** ![broccoli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@broccoli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/broccoli)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/38 "2003-01-14T17:38:34Z")
They do it because most of’em are from the “good ole’ boy club”. It’s just their accent. Many many people in the south sound like this, especially when they’re trying to inflect their words/speeches. It’s all from the same place we get “Hail-fiah an damn-NAY-shun” (hell fire and damnation) Plus it’s good for ratings, and makes those Catholic TV services look like a morgue. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/39 "2003-01-14T17:46:43Z")
This seems to have split off two different ways. There is a discussion about pronunciation going on now, but the OP was about appending an expulsion of breath to phrases. The former is an accent, but the latter is improper breathing. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744/40 "2003-01-14T19:03:41Z")
So if you say “Jesus Christ” a lot of times, at the top of your lungs it morphs into "“JEE-ZOZ Chris-TAH?” I’ve said those two words at the top of my lungs a shitload of times, and that’s never happened to me. Perhaps it’s because I usually say “fucking” in between. Must act as a diaphram modulator. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-evangelists-ah-sound-ah-that-ah-way-ah/147744.md?page=3)