Hospodi pomilui
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Well, here’s something you just don’t see every day: the “Soul Children of Chicago” singing “Lord, have mercy” 75 times in Ukrainian (or is it Slavonic? Reading the comments to this, people aren’t sure. We do this response at Vespers and Divine Liturgy, but I’m not sure which one it is either. And we pronounce it different, too. Oh well. It’s a small world, after all.)
Related posts:
- “Lord, have mercy”, cont.
- The Lord will have mercy; the Lord has had mercy
- Hey, blogging opportunities!
- As we set out
- Yep, we still have skyscrapers

7 Responses and Counting...
I’m never any help as the Serbian parish near my parents’ house does it wrong, and I can’t remember which is right and which is wrong.
That’s interesting, very staccato.
Staccato: Yep, I noticed that. It’s just interesting to see someone come at it from a whole different perspective. Not sure I could deal with that jet-takeoff sound if I was in church, but hey, whatever.
Yes, the pronuciation is rather curious…
It is Slavonic.
The great Russians (those from Russia) pronounce it Gospodi and the Little Russians — those from Slovakia, etc. say it with the softer “H” or Hospodi.
I know this because the parish I converted into were pretty much all descendants of the Slovakian immigrants. They still say or sing: “Hospodi.“
In my new parish, which has quite a few Russian immigrants, we sing “Gospodi.“
Hope that answers the question?
Yes indeed — many thanks. What do you think about the pronunciation on the second word? They say it “po-milly”. We say “po-mill-loy.” Is either one right?
It is “po-mi-lui”; three syllables. I haven’t ever heard it shortened to two…
But that doesn’t mean that some people don’t do it that way, perhaps someone who has more knowledge of Church Slavonic can tell us for sure.
love in Christ,
Mary-Leah
Thanks again. My fault on the syllables. I didn’t mean to say the chorus above was making it two syllables. I should have hyphenated it like this “po-mil-ly”. But anyway, we’ve got it covered at this point.