With the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s performances of Orff’s “Carmina burana” this weekend, and with regular listeners (who can be excused) and radio announcers (who cannot) all mispronouncing the title, it’s time to repeat The Word from Latin teachers: it’s CAR-mi-na, not car-MEE-na.

From an article I wrote the last time the SLSO performed it:

First, let’s get the pronunciation right: It’s CAR-mi-na, not car-MEE-na. Several Latin scholars have weighed in asking that we set the record straight, for the benefit of everyone from orchestra personnel to radio announcers.

Tom Tuthill, who teaches Latin at Priory High School, says, “The word ‘carmina’ is a neuter third declension noun; the i in the second syllable is short. Accent rules of Latin are very simple. If the penultimate syllable is long, it gets the accent. If the penultimate is short, the antepenult gets the accent, as in CARmina.”

That seems clear enough.

Yes, we’re all used to the wrong way of saying it, but that doesn’t make it okay. Go, and mispronounce no more.