Does the New Jerome Biblical Commentary contain a biblical pronunciation guide within it? I am a Lector in a parish within the boundaries of the Archdiocese of New York. My pastor tells me that quite often I am NOT pronouncing many of the biblical words in the Old Testament (especially for the weekday Mass readings), in the 'usual' format for the New York geographical area. The current biblical pronunciation reference book which I currently am using is: Lectors Guide to Biblical Pronunciations by Authors: Joseph M. Staudacher, Michael Dubruiel Original edition:(Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor). This guide, which I do find helpful in most instances, does acknowledge that there are 'geographical variations' (such as the Northeast and Southern areas of the U.S.), with pronouncing many Biblical words. But I find that quite often I am at a loss when it comes to either where I should be placing the main accent, or whether I elongate a vowel at the beginning of a word, due to the obvious dialect changes. I've heard a few people suggest that maybe the New Jerome Biblical Commentary might have a pronunciation guide within it, but I am not sure if that is true. Any help or suggestions of a guide which concentrates on the pronunciations used in the northeastern area of the United States will be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you.

-- Teri Dumont (marathon@bestweb.net), September 28, 2003

Answers

-- (top@top.top), September 28, 2003.

Pronunciations are different even in English? I am used to the actual Aramaic pronociations which cause certain difficulties when writing in English, but I didn't know that there were different pronunciations in English too. But does it matter? The prononications are not how they are meant to be, and different parts of the world adapt to different settings, so I don't think it is important. While in English Jesus us used, I am used to calling him "Eesho" and "Yeshu". My name which should be pronounced "Ab-raa-ham" is often pronounced as "Eb-ra-haam". It surprises me that pastors give importance to particular type if pronuncication of the biblical words. This troubles me because quite often we are not pronouncing the words as they actually are. How could there be a rule about geographical variations of pronunciations? It sounds wrong to me. Shouldn't people speak as they actually are, or as they feel like, because the official prononciations themselves are done in that fasion?

-- Abraham T (lijothengil@yahoo.com), September 29, 2003.

There is no pronunciation guide in my copy of the NJBC.

-- anon (anon@anon.anon), September 29, 2003.