What is this-aahu?

Particularly among African-American preachers, this is known as a "whoop".

I once preached the funeral of a pastor who, after retirement, had joined my congregation. His funeral was attended by scores of African-American pastors, one of whom said to me, after I had preached, "You ALMOST whooped!"

It is part affectation, part tradition, and part getting carried away in the excitement of the preaching moment.

 

It's an affectation, most likely learned from watching another preacher do it. For example, my in-laws are Plymouth Brethren and in the 1950s they were led by a guy called James Taylor Jnr (who turned out to be rather dodgy). Now Big Jim had a problem with nasal drip and used to clear his throat and cough repeatedly when preaching. So, today, a typical PB prayer will go like this:

"O Blessed Lord and God our Father <cough> we thank Thee that we can meet together <ahem> this Lord's Day to <harrumph> remember Thy Son's sacrifice upon the Cross <cough cough> as a propitiation for our sin <hmm hmm>..."

 

Oh, I thought it was a Catholic thing......all the way through the Mass in winter there is a accompanying cough, splutter,achoo,etc etc:laugh:

 

I have no idea what you're talking about.

 

Sometimes it is caught up preaching.

Sometimes it is drama.

Have you ever watched "meet the browns" where there is a funeral scene like this?

 

I would be interested in seeing my white brethren do the sing/song. :laugh: It just won't be happening!!

 

In addition to the black preachers, lots of white fundamentalist preachers have the same delivery.

 

Stylistic preaching. Notice the white Hanky? Just like some people feel its more holy to pray in king james english than in ordinary english.

 

Targus...

I have no idea.

I could speculate that maybe someone at one time got very "worked up" while preaching, and that audible, aggresive exhale was viewed as being "in the Spirit", and it sort of caught on.

Many fundalmentalist preachers around here also have pentecostal tendancies, which might add to the tendancy.

 

A LOT of preachers around here "hack". Instead of aahu they put a gutteral huh or cuh at the end of their phrases, like this:

From time to time I see preachers on TV-huh...
who have an affectation in their speech-huh...

Where they end each phrase-huh...
with an air gasping sound of some sort-huh...

And I am wondering what is the purpose-huh...
And where did it originate-huh?

Does anyone know what I am talking about-huh?

 

Other Brethren preachers I've seen overemphasise the final consonant of a sentence or phrase eg: "Thus saith the Lord-dah!"

 

It can be rather annoying if one is used to proper English. I was always taught, when you have nothing to say, say nothing.

It is very common for a lot of people to add, "you know" along the way and send me round the corner. English speakers have a habit of adding little "hums" along the way as they are thinking about the next word. I guess, for some reason, it is the intellectual thing to do.

My wife humbly asked one day if all preachers went to the same school for preaching lessons? I told her there were no pulpit microphones in our time, and we learned to project our voices, so the most occupied pews, the back rows, could clearly hear.

Afraid I am an English prig, escaping my Cockney background, and never leave from behind the pulpit and adopted an Oxfordian accent, very prim and proper. I also never drink water in pulpit or remove a handkerchief to wipe me nose.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Gesundheit!

 

As a student a half-century ago at a Baptist college we watched the young preacher boys evolve over time.

The first thing we non-preacher-boys noticed was that many of them learned a new way to say God, particularly in their preaching. It was now Gaw-od.

So we dubbed the school's Ministerial Association as the Minis-tee-re-al Association.

Fortunately, most of those preacher-boys are still my friends. They made fun of us frat rats, so we called it even.

 

The Lord-hah! The Lord-hah! Wants you to know-hah! That the Holy Ghost-hah! Is trying to get your attention-hah! And if the lord's servant-hah! Even the Pastor-hah! Sayeees Hah! It will wake you up-hah! Do I have an amen-hah!