How is Ba'al to be pronounced?

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I always thought it was like a two-syllabled ball … kinda like bah all.
 
In my 6th-grade class I pronounce it bah-ahl because it sounds more dreadful; but tell the kids that it’s ok to say bale, just like it’s ok to say Paris with the s.
 
Fr. Mitch Pacwa S.J., whose area of expertise is, I think, the Old Testament and ancient Semitic languages and cultures, pronounces it “bah-all”. However, most English speakers seem to pronounce it “ball”
 
paperwight66 said:
I’ve only ever heard it pronounced Barl.
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To be clear, paperwight (like me) speaks a non-rhotic accent, so isn’t actually indicating a pronounced “r” here.

Paperwight is indicating that they pronounce “Ba’al” with the a that is in “father”, which is also the only way I have heard it pronounced in this country.

So that is a as in “father” or “bath” or “balm”, not a as in “bat”, nor a as in “bale”, nor a as in “ball”.

I’m not sure General American even has this vowel, as that has the father-bother merger and doesn’t have the trap-bath split, so presumably GA pronounces the false-deity differently.
 
Bale and ball have only one syllable. I pronounce it with two. Also, perhaps the vowel is not the same as those, either.

However, most people I’ve heard seem to pick “ball”.
 
TypesAndShadows said:
To be clear, paperwight (like me) speaks a non-rhotic accent, so isn’t actually indicating a pronounced “r” here.

Paperwight is indicating that they pronounce “Ba’al” with the a that is in “father”, which is also the only way I have heard it pronounced in this country.

So that is a as in “father” or “bath” or “balm”, not a as in “bat”, nor a as in “bale”, nor a as in “ball”.

I’m not sure General American even has this vowel, as that has the father-bother merger and doesn’t have the trap-bath split, so presumably GA pronounces the false-deity differently.
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Actually I think this is correct, now that I think about it. It should be “bahl” with an a as in “father” or “balm”, not “ball” as in the word “ball”, nor “bale” as in “bale”. “Bath” is still another kind of “a”, but closer to “bale”. Maybe it’s a difference between it and “General American” (essentially Midwestern in origin) but in my own speech there’s definitely a subtle difference in the “a"s between father/balm and ball/fall.” The latter are just a tiny bit closer to an “o” (though not as much as for Downstaters).
 
Having been to Baalbek several times, it is pronouced Ba-al - two syllables with the accent on the first syllable. Both a’s are short as in ball, not long as in bale; it is like saying ball but with 2 separate ‘a’ sounds in the middle, instead of one, sort of like stammering on the vowel.
 
I am irritated when I hear people trying to pronounce words from another language, as if they understood that language.

“Bah ahl” may be accurate in its own language but I think there should be a standard Western pronunciation that is easy for Westerners. I like “bale” but with a slight pause “ba le”

I don’t know what “vis a vis” means but nobody pronounces it “viss ah viss” they pronouce it
“veeze ah vee” which is very irregular to me. If the first one is “veese” then ought not the second?

And, what does “vis a vis” mean, anyway? I like pizza, vis a vee mushrooms. What?

In my Polish heritage parish, a lector pronounced “Micah” “mee kah” which is the phonetic pronunciation of a common Polish surname Mika. Micah is the only Polish prophet in the Old Testament, I guess.
 
Crumpy said:
I am irritated when I hear people trying to pronounce words from another language, as if they understood that language.

“Bah ahl” may be accurate in its own language but I think there should be a standard Western pronunciation that is easy for Westerners. I like “bale” but with a slight pause “ba le”

I don’t know what “vis a vis” means but nobody pronounces it “viss ah viss” they pronouce it
“veeze ah vee” which is very irregular to me. If the first one is “veese” then ought not the second?

And, what does “vis a vis” mean, anyway? I like pizza, vis a vee mushrooms. What?

In my Polish heritage parish, a lector pronounced “Micah” “mee kah” which is the phonetic pronunciation of a common Polish surname Mika. Micah is the only Polish prophet in the Old Testament, I guess.
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I wanted to amend my pronunciation. The al is pronounced more like Al as in Alfred than ‘all’ as in ball.

Vis à vis is a French idiom and ‘veez a vee’ is the correct French pronunciation. The first ‘s’ is articulated because it is followed by ‘a’ , a vowel. It is normally silent. It means literally ‘face to face’.

phrases.org.uk/meanings/vis-a-vis.html if you want more definitions.

I disagree that there should be a standard different English pronunciation for foreign words. If we incorporate foreign words into English, we should keep their correct pronunciation according to the rules of that language.
 
Crumpy said:
I am irritated when I hear people trying to pronounce words from another language, as if they understood that language.

“Bah ahl” may be accurate in its own language but I think there should be a standard Western pronunciation that is easy for Westerners. I like “bale” but with a slight pause “ba le”

I don’t know what “vis a vis” means but nobody pronounces it “viss ah viss” they pronouce it
“veeze ah vee” which is very irregular to me. If the first one is “veese” then ought not the second?

And, what does “vis a vis” mean, anyway? I like pizza, vis a vee mushrooms. What?

In my Polish heritage parish, a lector pronounced “Micah” “mee kah” which is the phonetic pronunciation of a common Polish surname Mika. Micah is the only Polish prophet in the Old Testament, I guess.
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I don’t know. Pronouncing ba’al as ‘bale’ is just not my style; it’s kind of like hearing people read sabachthani as ‘sabach-than-EYE’. Maybe fine for them, but personally just grates my ears (I grew up reading it and hearing it read as ‘sabach-than-KNEE’ or ‘sabach-THAN-knee’.) And God forbid anyone read Eli, Eli lama sabachthani like Eel-eye Eel-eye lame-ah sa-batch-than-eye before me. 😛

But then again, I’m the same kid who thinks pronouncing Christ the old way (rhyming with wrist; the christ in Christmas) is cool, so I probably don’t count. 😃
 
You would say the “a” twice, as in “bah-ahl.”

If you wanted extra points and say it as the Israelites said it, you would pronounce the “ayin” – which is a gutteral letter in Hebrew, and having no English equivalent is marked with an apostrophre in “Ba’al.” It’s made by constricting your throat while making an “ah” sound. Here is the how-too:

(youtube.com/watch?v=KQb1a5HCB7E)
 
Obviously we have at least three, maybe four or five, rival pronunciations here.

In this case I’d say, then, that the ultimate answer is the same as the answer to questions of correct American pronunciation of scientific names in biology: choose any pronunciation reasonably suggested by the spelling and say it loudly and confidently.
 
Aelred_Minor said:
Obviously we have at least three, maybe four or five, rival pronunciations here.

In this case I’d say, then, that the ultimate answer is the same as the answer to questions of correct American pronunciation of scientific names in biology: choose any pronunciation reasonably suggested by the spelling and say it loudly and confidently.
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May-her-shale-all-hash-buzz. Pay-lay-joe’z-el-jibe-bore-a-bye-add-shale-om. 😃
 
Aelred_Minor said:
Fr. Mitch Pacwa S.J., whose area of expertise is, I think, the Old Testament and ancient Semitic languages and cultures, pronounces it “bah-all”. However, most English speakers seem to pronounce it “ball”
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If they don’t pronounce it bah-al I’m sure most English speakers would tend to pronounce it bahl, but certainly not ball.
 
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