1

Part of the Hail Mary reads

Blessed art thou among women,

And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, etc.

I have some intuitive sense that putting the adjective first accomplishes something subtle but important in this poem. If someone can explain it in a reasonably rigorous but not too long-winded way that would be great.

In the Spanish version I get a clear sense of the speaker confiding in an intimate way, and also providing reassurance. But maybe that's just cultural context, and it's not actually built into the way the words are arranged.

(Inspired by a review of an older similar question at Spanish SE.)

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

'Blessed' comes first in the Beatitudes as well. Beatitudes "Beati..." in Latin, "Makarioi..." in the original Greek of the New Testament. It's a poetic way of laying stress on the important word.

Improve this answer
1
  • I think the question is whether it was a inherited regular syntax from Proto Germanic or adapted from Latin, Greek. The Latin variant has benedicta tu at the start of both lines too, and the Biblical Greek source in the Gospels of Luke has a prefect passive participle as well (see wikipedia/Hail Mary).
    – vectory
    Commented Sep 1, 2019 at 14:25

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .