Pronouncing "BPAL" and scent names!

[Ina Garten Davita]

Nuit, named for an Egyptian goddess is pronounced "Noot".

[Penance]

My head sees "Baobhan Sith" and thinks, Bah-o-bahn  Sith.  Isn't he one of the Dark Lords from Star Wars?   

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Same here!

 

That's why I had to teach myself to pronounce it right. It just sounded ridiculous that way.

[Yvaine]

I believe I heard the History Channel pronounce it "heh - TIE - reh."

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That's how they said it when I studied classical Greek, maybe with a little more length on the final syllable - heh-TIE-rae

 

Also:

Maenad - MEE-nad

oneiroi - AH-nei-roy (though not so much an "a" sound as a short "o," but it's the best I could come up with to type.

 

Oh, and on the Russian ones, Vechernyaya and Utrennyaya, I think you keep the "nya" together as one sound (think "nyet"), so vyetcher-nya-ya and ootr(n)-nya-ya. Trill the r slightly if your tongue can take it.

[kimifox]

My very first batch of imps came today.

After sniffing each vial that I ordered, I determined that I like Szepasszony the best.

I'm going to try it out tomorrow, but when people ask me what it is that I'm wearing, what do I tell them, i.e. how do you say Szepasszony?

[ipb]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> that post explains how to pornounce szepasszony

[darkophelia]

This season belongs to Brigid, the Celtic goddess who in later times became revered as a Christian saint. Originally, her festival on February 1 was known as Imbolc or Oimelc, two names which refer to the lactation of the ewes, the flow of milk that heralds the return of the life-giving forces of spring. Later, the Catholic Church replaced this festival with Candlemas Day on February 2, which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and features candlelight processions. The powerful figure of Brigid the Light-Bringer overlights both pagan and Christian celebrations

 

From http://www.celticspirit.org/imbolc.htm

 

Pagan milk and Christian candles interesting combo

 

interesting...

 

Dare I ask how it's pronounced?

 

having been informed previously that the traditional pronounciation of "Samhain" differs north of the border (here in Scotland) to the rest of the UK, I'm ready for multiple suggestions...

 

 

How do you pronounce Samhain? I've always been told it's pronounced like sow-in or sow-en.

[Galen]

How do you pronounce Samhain? I've always been told it's pronounced like sow-in or sow-en.

me? with great difficulty

 

I have no memory of the correction I've had for proper Scottish pronounciation and only have one Wiccan friend who lives north of the border - I'll have to ask her and get back to you...

[hillarygayle]

I've got a question. I've been pronouncing "The Hesperides" as "hess-pear-ih-deez". Is this anywhere near correct?

[darklorelei]

yep!

 

eta: I assume you're doing it this way, but the accent is on the 2nd syllable.

Edited February 2, 2006 by darklorelei

[Nyx]

On the subject of Imbolc:

 

There are a few ways to pronounce it, depending on where you're from, I guess. 'Im-melg' or 'Im-mel' seems to be popular for Imbolc's spelling, and 'Ee-mulk' or 'Im-olk' is popular for Oimelc's spelling.

 

It's more popular in modern Ireland to refer to it as "Lá Fhéile Bríde", or St. Bridget's Feast Day. I think it's a pretty neat holiday, because of the peaceful meshing of the religions. They don't hide the paganism in it; rather, Christanity has made a Saint out of a pagan goddess without obscuring her pre-Christian traits.

 

 

On Samhain:

 

I've seen it spelled 'Samhuinn' in Scotland; not sure how to pronounce that, though. It's usually pronounced 'sow-in' or 'sow-en' in Irish. A good percentage of the neo-pagan people in NJ pronounce it 'Sam-hain', however, which makes my right eye twitch occasionally.

Edited February 2, 2006 by Nyx

[heartbeast]

Back to the topic of silly nicknames for scents...I was having a terrible time remembering the name of "Kajuraho". I kept thinking of it as "that-Indian-temple-with-all-the-erotic-carvings-starts-with-K", until it popped into my head to start pronouncing it "'cause you're a ho". Does anyone know what the actual pronunciation is?

[Gaidig]

Back to the topic of silly nicknames for scents...I was having a terrible time remembering the name of "Kajuraho". I kept thinking of it as "that-Indian-temple-with-all-the-erotic-carvings-starts-with-K", until it popped into my head to start pronouncing it "'cause you're a ho". Does anyone know what the actual pronunciation is?

 

Actually, you're pretty close with "'cause you're a ho." I can't quite explain with English how to pronounce the first bit with the j -- it's like the word "cage" in French. Maybe this will help: Ka-jur-AH-ho

 

jur as in jury

[Gaidig]

As for Vechernyaya and Utrennyaya...I'm probably completely wrong, but I've been pronouncing them:

 

Vetch (like kvetch) - urn - yaya and You - tren - yaya

 

I never would have thought of Vetch...The "yaya" parts are throwing me off. Reminds me of that Ya-ya Sisterhood book.

 

I was thinking nyaya was a sound more like the naya in Stolichnaya, the vodka. So the n would kind of combine with the y.

 

I was pronounching it in my head like: Vetch-er-naya and Ooot-ren-naya. Though I see how the U is more likely to be like the U in Ukraine.

 

Anyone authoritative on the subject?

[darklorelei]

No, it's not, as a Russian student.

 

it's a long ooo. OOO-tre-nya-ya. It's like...a the ~ over the n in Spanish, or gn in Italian. Utro means morning in Russian. The Yoo sound, like in our word Ukraine is a different letter in Russian (although in Russian, the Ukraine is spellt with a plain oo.)

 

For Vechernyaya, the first syllable is closer to Vyaych. Like, yay/hey. Vecher is Evening.

 

And Zorya is Zohrya, which means star.

 

In Russian there're 10 vowels. ah/ya, eh/yeh, ui/eee, oh/yoh, and oo/yoo.

Edited February 16, 2006 by darklorelei

[ayelienne]

No, it's not, as a Russian student.

 

it's a long ooo. OOO-tre-nya-ya. It's like...a the ~ over the n in Spanish, or gn in Italian. Utro means morning in Russian. The Yoo sound, like in our word Ukraine is a different letter in Russian (although in Russian, the Ukraine is spellt with a plain oo.)

 

For Vechernyaya, the first syllable is closer to Vyaych. Like, yay/hey. Vecher is Evening.

 

And Zorya is Zohrya, which means star.

 

In Russian there're 10 vowels. ah/ya, eh/yeh, ui/eee, oh/yoh, and oo/yoo.

 

My darling native speaker husband has confirmed you are correct, darklorelei

[Gaidig]

No, it's not, as a Russian student.

 

it's a long ooo. OOO-tre-nya-ya. It's like...a the ~ over the n in Spanish, or gn in Italian. Utro means morning in Russian. The Yoo sound, like in our word Ukraine is a different letter in Russian (although in Russian, the Ukraine is spellt with a plain oo.)

 

For Vechernyaya, the first syllable is closer to Vyaych. Like, yay/hey. Vecher is Evening.

 

And Zorya is Zohrya, which means star.

 

In Russian there're 10 vowels. ah/ya, eh/yeh, ui/eee, oh/yoh, and oo/yoo.

 

The ny is just what I was thinking but couldn't explain! I know that the idea of combining the n and the y was not coming across. I should have thought of gn, being a French speaker. Thanks for the vowel info! It's so hard with place names because you never know how people will transliterate or if they will make up their own totally different word.

[abberlaine]

*peeks in* My mom, who's of Arabic and Israeli descent, pronounces Scherezade as "Shahch (ah - as in, a the satisfied, high-pitched cry; ch - it's kind of like a cross between the sound you make when preparing a spit and a dry "h") + reh (soft, back of throat "r" and "eh" as in "Eh. Whatever.") + z-ah-rd (again, a soft "r") + ha."

Edited April 7, 2006 by Abberlaine Arrol

[Sheeria]

Nocnitsa anyone?  I can't find it anywhere.

 

Sorry if it's already been covered here, but I didn't see it and I'm too tired for a more exhaustive search.

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noch - NEET - sa

 

(ch = cheese)

 

As I am a native speaker of czech (which is really near to slovak from the pronounciation) I'm quite sure it is:

 

noch-nyi-tsa

 

the "ch" like "cheese"

ny like the "ny" in "canyon"

the "i" is very short like in "it"

(Accent on nyi)

 

If someone wondered about Kostnice

 

It's

 

Cost-nyi-tseh

 

Cost with a short oh like the cost (price)

nyi again like the ny in canyon followed by a short i like in "it"

the last e is also very short like in father (without the r obviously)

 

The Accent is on the first syllable

[sihaya09]

I'm SO happy I wasn't the only one saying 'Cuz You're A Ho' for Kajuraho!

[silverfishee]

Can anyone tell me how to pronounce AIZEN MYOO??? This is the one scent I have been reluctant to try since I bought it but finally did and after the intial shock of EEEWWW this DOES NOT SMELL PRETTY and giving the oil had a minute to mix with my body chemistry, I came out smelling DIVINE and want to be able to tell people what it is, but ??????? how to say it........... hhhhmmmmm???????

[lunareclipse]

From what little I know of Japanese, I believe it should be "AYE-zen M-you." Remember that there are fewer sounds in Asian languages than in European ones... Native Japanese speakers always understand me better, and are more likely to compliment my accent, when I *don't* enunciate and let the sounds slide together a bit.

[indicolite]

Japanese romaji would transcribe miyoo as mi (as in me) yo (as in "yo man whatsup?") and then make the o longer. I have no idea, though, whether Beth used romaji or a transcription.

 

OO-tre-nya-ya with the nya as n-tilde if you can do it (try making n and then, keeping your tongue tip on your gum ridge behind your teeth, touching the tongue below it to the back of your front teeth; sounds complicated but try it)

 

ve-CHER-nya-ya with same thing (at least if you are going standard Russian - about the first difference between Slavic languages is where they would choose to stress a common word)

 

French u in Ulalume can be learned by going "eeeee" as in beet, then as you are making the sound, move your lips closer and rounder as if you were pronouncing "oo" or "oh."

 

Generally, transcription of foreign languages that do not use the Latin alphabet is a lot more consistent than English - it's English that is the weird one after it had gone through the mess of the Great Vowel Shift and emerged with no vowel actually sounding like it is spelled.

 

Hey linguists!

[Aloiis]

Hey there, I'm French; I've seen a few inaccuracies concerning at least some French and Latin/Greek words and their pronunciation, but I can't remember them all so I simply wanted to say that if you want to bounce words off me to get the pronunciation, I'm here and I'll do my best.

[Polly]

I keep coming back to this thread. I've learned so much. I love my lonely little imp of Oisin for example and always pronounced it, for lack of knowledge, like "poison" with out the 'p'.

 

Now I know how to really pronounce it! And on some I was pretty close, but on others again WAY off the mark. LOL!!

 

 

Thank you to those who've helped out!

 

 

And I prounounce it BEE-PAL. Mostly though, out loud I will say "Black Phoenix".

[Galen]

Does anyone have any tips for pronouncing the Qliphoth oils? or the word Qliphoth itself? I have so little idea how to say it that I can't even keep the spelling in my head!

 

and while we're in that Illuminations category of the General Catalogue how about the other Sephiroth and the Chakras?