Biblical Pronunciations

[DavidMc]

Now we are working our way through the early books in the Bible, we’re going to be confronted by many unfamiliar names and names known to us but maybe we’re unsure of the correct pronunciation. We could use WTLibrary to hear the sounds of the words and we can and should make use of the pronunciation guides in the Bible. For example: Me.hu’ja.el.

 

However for sometime I’ve been using an app on my iPad and iPhone that is both quick and easy to access and use: “Biblical Pronunciations” by developer Stefano Russello. There are three free versions available: English, Italian and Spanish.
 

[Bek]

Pity that English is not a phonetic language. I too have to look up quite a few names sometimes. Wish it was like Russian or some other phonetic language where you pronounce words just the way they are written. 

 

Many people are frustrated by English spellings and even native speakers struggle with it. Interestingly, there is a poem dedicated to this very problem. It is fittingly called "Chaos". 

 

Gerard Nolst Trenité - The Chaos (1922)

Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
   I will teach you in my verse
   Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.

I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
   Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear;
   Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.

Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
   Just compare heart, hear and heard,
   Dies and diet, lord and word.

Sword and sward, retain and Britain
(Mind the latter how it's written).
   Made has not the sound of bade,
   Say-said, pay-paid, laid but plaid.

Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague and ague,
   But be careful how you speak,
   Say: gush, bush, steak, streak, break, bleak ,

Previous, precious, fuchsia, via
Recipe, pipe, studding-sail, choir;
   Woven, oven, how and low,
   Script, receipt, shoe, poem, toe.

Say, expecting fraud and trickery:
Daughter, laughter and Terpsichore,
   Branch, ranch, measles, topsails, aisles,
   Missiles, similes, reviles.

Wholly, holly, signal, signing,
Same, examining, but mining,
   Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
   Solar, mica, war and far.

From "desire": desirable-admirable from "admire",
Lumber, plumber, bier, but brier,
   Topsham, brougham, renown, but known,
   Knowledge, done, lone, gone, none, tone,

One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel.
   Gertrude, German, wind and wind,
   Beau, kind, kindred, queue, mankind,

Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather,
Reading, Reading, heathen, heather.
   This phonetic labyrinth
   Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth, plinth.

Have you ever yet endeavoured
To pronounce revered and severed,
   Demon, lemon, ghoul, foul, soul,
   Peter, petrol and patrol?

Billet does not end like ballet;
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
   Blood and flood are not like food,
   Nor is mould like should and would.

Banquet is not nearly parquet,
Which exactly rhymes with khaki.
   Discount, viscount, load and broad,
   Toward, to forward, to reward,

Ricocheted and crocheting, croquet?
Right! Your pronunciation's OK.
   Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
   Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Is your r correct in higher?
Keats asserts it rhymes Thalia.
   Hugh, but hug, and hood, but hoot,
   Buoyant, minute, but minute.

Say abscission with precision,
Now: position and transition;
   Would it tally with my rhyme
   If I mentioned paradigm?

Twopence, threepence, tease are easy,
But cease, crease, grease and greasy?
   Cornice, nice, valise, revise,
   Rabies, but lullabies.

Of such puzzling words as nauseous,
Rhyming well with cautious, tortious,
   You'll envelop lists, I hope,
   In a linen envelope.

Would you like some more? You'll have it!
Affidavit, David, davit.
   To abjure, to perjure. Sheik
   Does not sound like Czech but ache.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, loch, moustache, eleven.
   We say hallowed, but allowed,
   People, leopard, towed but vowed.

Mark the difference, moreover,
Between mover, plover, Dover.
   Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
   Chalice, but police and lice,

Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
   Petal, penal, and canal,
   Wait, surmise, plait, promise, pal,

Suit, suite, ruin. Circuit, conduit
Rhyme with "shirk it" and "beyond it",
   But it is not hard to tell
   Why it's pall, mall, but Pall Mall.

Muscle, muscular, gaol, iron,
Timber, climber, bullion, lion,
   Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
   Senator, spectator, mayor,

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
Has the a of drachm and hammer.
   Pussy, hussy and possess,
   Desert, but desert, address.

Golf, wolf, countenance, lieutenants
Hoist in lieu of flags left pennants.
   Courier, courtier, tomb, bomb, comb,
   Cow, but Cowper, some and home.

"Solder, soldier! Blood is thicker",
Quoth he, "than liqueur or liquor",
   Making, it is sad but true,
   In bravado, much ado.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
   Pilot, pivot, gaunt, but aunt,
   Font, front, wont, want, grand and grant.

Arsenic, specific, scenic,
Relic, rhetoric, hygienic.
   Gooseberry, goose, and close, but close,
   Paradise, rise, rose, and dose.

Say inveigh, neigh, but inveigle,
Make the latter rhyme with eagle.
   Mind! Meandering but mean,
   Valentine and magazine.

And I bet you, dear, a penny,
You say mani-(fold) like many,
   Which is wrong. Say rapier, pier,
   Tier (one who ties), but tier.

Arch, archangel; pray, does erring
Rhyme with herring or with stirring?
   Prison, bison, treasure trove,
   Treason, hover, cover, cove,

Perseverance, severance. Ribald
Rhymes (but piebald doesn't) with nibbled.
   Phaeton, paean, gnat, ghat, gnaw,
   Lien, psychic, shone, bone, pshaw.

Don't be down, my own, but rough it,
And distinguish buffet, buffet;
   Brood, stood, roof, rook, school, wool, boon,
   Worcester, Boleyn, to impugn.

Say in sounds correct and sterling
Hearse, hear, hearken, year and yearling.
   Evil, devil, mezzotint,
   Mind the z! (A gentle hint.)

Now you need not pay attention
To such sounds as I don't mention,
   Sounds like pores, pause, pours and paws,
   Rhyming with the pronoun yours;

Nor are proper names included,
Though I often heard, as you did,
   Funny rhymes to unicorn,
   Yes, you know them, Vaughan and Strachan.

No, my maiden, coy and comely,
I don't want to speak of Cholmondeley.
   No. Yet Froude compared with proud
   Is no better than McLeod.

But mind trivial and vial,
Tripod, menial, denial,
   Troll and trolley, realm and ream,
   Schedule, mischief, schism, and scheme.

Argil, gill, Argyll, gill. Surely
May be made to rhyme with Raleigh,
   But you're not supposed to say
   Piquet rhymes with sobriquet.

Had this invalid invalid
Worthless documents? How pallid,
   How uncouth he, couchant, looked,
   When for Portsmouth I had booked!

Zeus, Thebes, Thales, Aphrodite,
Paramour, enamoured, flighty,
   Episodes, antipodes,
   Acquiesce, and obsequies.

Please don't monkey with the geyser,
Don't peel 'taters with my razor,
   Rather say in accents pure:
   Nature, stature and mature.

Pious, impious, limb, climb, glumly,
Worsted, worsted, crumbly, dumbly,
   Conquer, conquest, vase, phase, fan,
   Wan, sedan and artisan.

The th will surely trouble you
More than r, ch or w.
   Say then these phonetic gems:
   Thomas, thyme, Theresa, Thames.

Thompson, Chatham, Waltham, Streatham,
There are more but I forget 'em-
   Wait! I've got it: Anthony,
   Lighten your anxiety.

The archaic word albeit
Does not rhyme with eight-you see it;
   With and forthwith, one has voice,
   One has not, you make your choice.

Shoes, goes, does *. Now first say: finger;
Then say: singer, ginger, linger.
   Real, zeal, mauve, gauze and gauge,
   Marriage, foliage, mirage, age,

Hero, heron, query, very,
Parry, tarry fury, bury,
   Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth,
   Job, Job, blossom, bosom, oath.

Faugh, oppugnant, keen oppugners,
Bowing, bowing, banjo-tuners
   Holm you know, but noes, canoes,
   Puisne, truism, use, to use?

Though the difference seems little,
We say actual, but victual,
   Seat, sweat, chaste, caste, Leigh, eight, height,
   Put, nut, granite, and unite.

Reefer does not rhyme with deafer,
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
   Dull, bull, Geoffrey, George, ate, late,
   Hint, pint, senate, but sedate.

Gaelic, Arabic, pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific;
   Tour, but our, dour, succour, four,
   Gas, alas, and Arkansas.

Say manoeuvre, yacht and vomit,
Next omit, which differs from it
   Bona fide, alibi
   Gyrate, dowry and awry.

Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
   Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean,
   Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion,
   Rally with ally; yea, ye,
   Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!

Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, receiver.
   Never guess-it is not safe,
   We say calves, valves, half, but Ralf.

Starry, granary, canary,
Crevice, but device, and eyrie,
   Face, but preface, then grimace,
   Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Bass, large, target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, oust, joust, and scour, but scourging;
   Ear, but earn; and ere and tear
   Do not rhyme with here but heir.

Mind the o of off and often
Which may be pronounced as orphan,
   With the sound of saw and sauce;
   Also soft, lost, cloth and cross.

Pudding, puddle, putting. Putting?
Yes: at golf it rhymes with shutting.
   Respite, spite, consent, resent.
   Liable, but Parliament.

Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,
   Monkey, donkey, clerk and jerk,
   Asp, grasp, wasp, demesne, cork, work.

A of valour, vapid vapour,
S of news (compare newspaper),
   G of gibbet, gibbon, gist,
   I of antichrist and grist,

Differ like diverse and divers,
Rivers, strivers, shivers, fivers.
   Once, but nonce, toll, doll, but roll,
   Polish, Polish, poll and poll.

Pronunciation-think of Psyche!-
Is a paling, stout and spiky.
   Won't it make you lose your wits
   Writing groats and saying "grits"?

It's a dark abyss or tunnel
Strewn with stones like rowlock, gunwale,
   Islington, and Isle of Wight,
   Housewife, verdict and indict.

Don't you think so, reader, rather,
Saying lather, bather, father?
   Finally, which rhymes with enough,
   Though, through, bough, cough, hough, sough, tough??

Hiccough has the sound of sup...
My advice is: GIVE IT UP!  

[Thesauron]

Now we are working our way through the early books in the Bible, we’re going to be confronted by many unfamiliar names and names known to us but maybe we’re unsure of the correct pronunciation. We could use WTLibrary to hear the sounds of the words and we can and should make use of the pronunciation guides in the Bible. For example: Me.hu’ja.el.

 

However for sometime I’ve been using an app on my iPad and iPhone that is both quick and easy to access and use: “Biblical Pronunciations” by developer Stefano Russello. There are three free versions available: English, Italian and Spanish.
 

I’m sorry, but I can’t read this post. Are you posting without text formatting?

[DavidMc]

1 minute ago, Thesauron said:

I’m sorry, but I can’t read this post. Are you posting without text formatting?

Not at all sure what the problem is. You have managed to quote my post okay. 
 

[Thesauron]

Not at all sure what the problem is. You have managed to quote my post okay. 
 

I can quote, but when your text is formatted with some colour, it becomes completely impossible to read when using dark mode. Dark mode is better from the eyes and also battery management. But formatted text becomes impossible to read. Thankfully most don’t.

[leoperales]

51 minutes ago, Thesauron said:

I can quote, but when your text is formatted with some colour, it becomes completely impossible to read when using dark mode. Dark mode is better from the eyes and also battery management. But formatted text becomes impossible to read. Thankfully most don’t.

I was able to see OP message fine. There was no formatting with some colour on my screen.

[Thesauron]

I was able to see OP message fine. There was no formatting with some colour on my screen.

There is some formatting that makes that text dark. The other posts in this thread does not suffer from that.

[jwhess]

In the "Dark theme" the text in question is displayed as black (or very dark gray).  But the background goes from white to dark gray.  So we end up with black print on very dark gray.  Not easily discernible.   In reverse mode, the black text on white background should transpose to white text on black background.

 

EDIT: I tried copying the text to my Word program and it looks like it is recognized as white letters on a gray background which translates or converts to the black on gray effect.

 

Edited January 15, 2020 by jwhess

[New World Explorer]

3 hours ago, Bek said:

Pity that English is not a phonetic language.

O..no, my dear!

English is extremely phone-net-ic language

Here Down Under, I constantly see people on the phone- using net - to be able to say I see (ic) you on facebook LOL  (phone-net-ic)

 

LOL

[DavidMc]

5 hours ago, Thesauron said:

but when your text is formatted with some colour

No formatting or colour was used. Just simply typed the post as normal into the post area then sent it. 

[carlos]

Thanks, David.

[Thesauron]

No formatting or colour was used. Just simply typed the post as normal into the post area then sent it. 

Yes, this is what the code says:

p style="color:#000000;font-size:16.4px;"

He text is formatted.

[Ms. Piffle]

On 1/15/2020 at 9:43 AM, DavidMc said:

Now we are working our way through the early books in the Bible, we’re going to be confronted by many unfamiliar names and names known to us but maybe we’re unsure of the correct pronunciation. We could use WTLibrary to hear the sounds of the words and we can and should make use of the pronunciation guides in the Bible. For example: Me.hu’ja.el.

 

However for sometime I’ve been using an app on my iPad and iPhone that is both quick and easy to access and use: “Biblical Pronunciations” by developer Stefano Russello. There are three free versions available: English, Italian and Spanish.
 

Thank you.  I've downloaded this on my Android tablet.  Will check it out. Is this the correct one?

Biblical Pronunciations

FollowMe Mobile

Email is Stefano russello (not complete email.  Focusing on the name)

Edited January 19, 2020 by Bubbles

[DavidMc]

I use Stefano Russello’s free iPad app so the Android version should also be free. Hope you find the app useful.

[Ms. Piffle]

1 hour ago, DavidMc said:

I use Stefano Russello’s free iPad app so the Android version should also be free. Hope you find the app useful.

Yes, it's free.  I'm sure I'll find it useful.  Thanks again.

[daydream]

5 hours ago, Bubbles said:

 

Thank you.  I've downloaded this on my Android tablet.  Will check it out. Is this the correct one?

Biblical Pronunciations

FollowMe Mobile

Email is Stefano russello (not complete email.  Focusing on the name)

I went to Playstore on my android Play. I typed 'Biblical Pronounciations' in the 'Find' box.

So under the name Biblical Pronounciations is the word 'Followme Moblile' Unfortunately it is not free.

Thanks for the clear instructions, Sister Vickie.

Oh, when I pressed 'Accept' for 'in-app purchases' it allows me to download. I wonder why. Heck, it is fun using this app. 

[Darren G]

Your post made me smile a lot Brother DavidMc , it typifies our crazy English language and its so very hard for us born here it must be an absolute nightmare for others ! 😖