Rosenkrantz is Full of Gray

 During a particular day, between the livestreams at the shrines Lourdes and Fatima, it is possible to recite the rosary live in five different languages--English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese (and sixth, Polish, on Saturdays).

Of the these six languages I just mentioned, five of the recitations are always done by priests and sisters who are native speakers of the language. In the one of the languages, however, the recitation is almost almost done by non-native speakers of the language. Guess which language it is? Of course it is English. The recitation of the rosary (from Lourdes at 6 AM Pacific) is almost always done by people who have learned English as a second or third language.

Occasionally, one hears a native English speaker, for example a priest from English, Ireland, or the United States.  Instead one hears from a rotating group of speakers from around the world. Often the English-language recitation is done by what I assume are priests from Francophone Africa. They often do the French language ones as well, as often as priests from France itself. 

 Over the summer, the English-language rosary was often led by a German priest, who himself occasionally led a German-language rosary when there was a special pilgrimage group that provided a large-enough crowd. I was delighted to have the opportunity to recite the German version with them, but it only happens from time to time. By the way, the German word for rosary is Rosenkrantz, like the minor character in Shakespeare's Hamlet, who was later made famous by Tom Stoppard.

One learns much from hearing the non-native speakers attempt to lead the crowd at the grotto in the sequence of prayers. The German priest I mentioned invariably pronounced the first line of the Ave Maria prayer as "Hail Mary, full of gray." The s-sound at the end of the word grace disappeared entirely. He always pronounced it like this. I inferred that for German speakers, it is no normal to play that strong s-sound at the end of words. If I had a few minutes with the priest, I could no doubt help him improve his recitation, as it is sometimes humorously distracting to hear mispronounce that word over and over.