No clams this Sunday. Invoking instead.
Today- the First Sunday in Lent- is called Invocavit on the traditional Lutheran calendar, from the introit for the day, taken from Psalm 91:15. Since "v" can look like a "b" in some Old English scripts (the kind that often get used in bulletins and even lectionaries) it is sometimes misspelled "Invocabit."Or not. I believe "v" and "b" in Latin also bear something of the same relationship as "v" and "w" bear in German and many Slavic languages. If it's spelled one way, it's probably pronounced the other. This, too, can account for the variation in spellings. I hope if Dr. Eric Phillips, who has helped me on previous occasions with my Latin, reads this entry, he'll set me straight once again.
In any case, "Invocabit" struck me as amusing when I was growing up, since it conjured up clearly inappropriate images of the pastor looking at his watch before making the Sign of the Cross and speaking the Triune Name at the beginning of the Divine Service, and thinking,"Well, it's 10:45. Time to Invocabit!"
I was an odd child.
Actually, the equivalent word from the Vulgate (where it is Psalm 90:15) is Clamabit. The name Invocavit survived, however, because it was the word used in the Old Latin Psalter, and habits are hard to break.
Clamabit, I would think, would be a Sunday on which it would be appropriate for the pastor to either seek his dinner digging around on a sandy beach, or at least preach a comparatively short sermon.
Sorry, flock at Saint Mary; I finished mine about an hour ago, and no such luck.
ADDENDUM: A Facebook friend named Ken B. Demented, informs me that, more or less as I suspected, it's spelled one way (invocavit), while pronounced the other ("invocabit"). So would Clamavit be the proper spelling of "Clamabit?"
ADDENDUM II: Dr. Phillips got back to me. It seems that only in Medieval Spanish Latin is there confusion between "v" and "b," due to the tendency of Spanish, rather than Latin, to confuse them. Invocabit and clamabit are future tense, whereas invocavit and clamavit are perfect tense. The confusion arises from the peculiarities of yet another language- namely, the original Hebrew of the Psalm. Hebrew lacks a future tense.
Dr. Philips gives a fuller explanation in the comments on this post. So I guess now the mystery is solved: everybody is right. Sort of.
Comments
Confusion of the 'v' and 'b' does not happen in Latin with the exception of Medieval Spanish Latin, where the developing Spanish tendency to pronounce "v" like "b" begins to make itself known via misspellings in some manuscripts.
Invocabit and clamabit are future tense: "He will call upon [Me]" and "He will cry out to [Me]." Invocavit and clamavit are perfect tense: "He has called upon [Me]" and "He has cried out to [Me]."
I assume the confusion in tenses between the various Latin versions (and the LXX, which seems to side with the Vulgate here) stems ultimately from Hebrew tenses being, to use a technical term, weird--and in particular from the fact that Hebrew doesn't have a future tense at all--though that's your area of expertise, not mine. Perhaps the same tense confusion explains some of the modern misspellings you have observed--indirectly if not directly.
Different tenses! I guess that explains it! Thanks again!