Talk:Bede

World Almanac issues from the 1970s and 1980s state that the Venerable Bede announced in AD 730 that the year was too long (11 minutes 14 seconds excess - the actual year length being 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds), though nothing was done about it until 1582, by which time the error was estimated to amount to 10 days. There does not seem to be anything about it in the article. GBC (talk) 06:07, 24 February 2023 (UTC) [reply ]

We give "beed" as the only pronunciation but it is not even the correct pronunciation of his name, which is more like "beda", even if spelled as "bede". AFAIK, it's not until (late) Middle English that "bede" would be pronounced "beed", but I am not sure when that spelling came about. Seems to me like it was merely another way to spell a schwa at the end. "Beda" is used sometimes as a spelling today in fact (schools named after him). Is there some better way we can handle this so people see right in the first part of the lead what the correct pronunciation of the name is? —DIYeditor (talk) 18:58, 30 May 2023 (UTC) [reply ]

To me this would be analogous to Goethe's pronunciation being given as "gewth", or Gödel's given as "gohdel", or Nietzsche given as "neechee". Surely, people do often pronounce them that way in English, but that is not how those names are properly pronounced. (Modern) English speakers may not be able to get those names exactly right, but equally well we shouldn't give a completely wrong pronunciation just because many people say it that way. Of course, we need to go by reliable sources. I am open to any solution to this which would put the correct Anglo-Saxon pronunciation closer to the beginning of the lead (or lede if you will). —DIYeditor (talk) 03:35, 31 May 2023 (UTC) [reply ]

Err, according to MOS:LEAD "In Wikipedia, the lead section is an introduction to an article and a summary of its most important contents. It is located at the beginning of the article, before the table of contents and the first heading. It is not a news-style lead or "lede" paragraph."

Back to Bede, when reading Middle- or Old-English I was taught to pronounce every letter. If the scribe made the effort to write it then he did so because it is needed. For instance words like þone have to be pronounced "thonuh" (short o) to accommodate the metre of poems such as Beowulf. I've never seen Bede's name in a poem, but would agree that DIYeditor is probably right, it is bi-syllabic and my personal guess (ie not RS) is bed-ah. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 08:14, 31 May 2023 (UTC) [reply ]

FWIW I was born on Bede Burn Road near to the location of the monastery. Everyone pronounces it "Bead". I suppose one could claim that all the locals are wrong but it seems a bit something or other. (Burn is nothing to do with fire, btw, it's the local dialect for beck or dene.) --Vometia (talk) 15:54, 1 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

Modern English people pronounce lots of words differently than they were pronounced in Middle or Old English. —DIYeditor (talk) 21:26, 2 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

True, though there seems to be variations depending on the regional dialect and/or accent. My observation was simply "this is how it's pronounced by the locals", as in a pronunciation that exists, since nobody really knows for certain how it was pronounced 1400 years ago. FWIW I've never heard anybody pronounce it "Beda" or the like. --Vometia (talk) 06:26, 3 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

The article says the pronunciation is "beed". It says the Anglo-Saxon name would be "beeda". His name is commonly given as Beda. I don't think there is any question that "beeda" is the Anglo-Saxon pronunciation. We do have linguistic information about how Anglo-Saxon was pronounced. See Silent e for some starter information.

If you are challenging giving this as the original pronunciation after we give "beed" as the modern one, we can work on this more. —DIYeditor (talk) 12:35, 3 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

I've no idea what's the original pronunciation; it's speculative at best. I was simply referring to the existing pronunciation by the people in the same region. It's a pronunciation and the one that's currently used by the locals. The point was nothing more than that. I mean other than being a local who's been helpfully corrected by a non-local for supposedly pronouncing e.g. "Newcastle" incorrectly... --Vometia (talk) 13:38, 4 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

The article says the pronunciation is beed. —DIYeditor (talk) 14:15, 4 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

I think the medieval depiction looks far worse than the modern one and is just not nearly as good for the first image people see, especially when both depictions are imaginary. Does anyone agree/disagree? SaturatedFatts (talk) 02:26, 9 August 2023 (UTC) [reply ]

I think the medieval one is fine, even though it's not contemporary. It's probably not far from what a contemporary depiction would have been. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 03:28, 9 August 2023 (UTC) [reply ]

I like the current picture. Which modern one do you mean? —DIYeditor (talk) 03:37, 9 August 2023 (UTC) [reply ]

This was the original lead image, which I moved further down in the article to the section on Bede's works. Ficaia (talk) 10:09, 9 August 2023 (UTC) [reply ]