[Magdalen] prophecy/prophesy

[Simon Kershaw]

Anyone here who tried to say "eye-zay-uh" would be assumed to be
mispronouncing the word and would be likely corrected afterwards. I don't
think I have ever heard Isaiah pronounced that way. "eyes-eye-uh" is the
only pronunciation known to me.

As for "Israel", I guess I'm a bit pedantic on this. The name of the
modern country is usually pronounced (in this country anyway) as two
syllables: "iz-rayl". I was brought up when singing canticles as a young
choirboy to sing "iz-rah-ell", and I still do on the rare occasions that I
get to sing the Nunc Dimittis, for example. In a religious context,
referring to ancient Israel, I think there is real merit in a
three-syllable pronunciation isra-el "iz-ray-ell". The final syllable "el"
is the most important part of the word, and to swallow it is to miss the
point that it's something to do with El, God.

But we too had "prophesy" pronounced as "prophecy" yesterday.

simon


Scott Knitter wrote:
> Some of our (American) lectors insist on eye-zeye-uh as well. I stick
> with eye-zay-uh.
>
> A couple of lectors also insist on pronouncing some OT names in a very
> Hebrew-sounding way, like EESS-rah-ayl for Israel. I'm one who thinks
> it's fine to pronounce these names in an Anglicized way...German
> lectors would do similarly, applying German pronunciations and not
> trying to sound like they're using authentic Hebrew pronunciation.
> Besides, these same fussy lectors wouldn't say "yer-em-me-YAH-hoo" for
> Jeremiah nor pronounce Moses in a Hebrew way, so why not just stick
> with Anglicized pronunciations? Self-pronouncing KJV Bibles are a lot
> of help here, and we've got a good little paperback pronunciation
> guide in our sacristy.
>
> On Sun, Jun 4, 2017 at 4:05 PM, Roger Stokes
> <roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com> wrote:
>> This Englishman agrees with Mike - you need the final uh sound. In
>> England
>> the normal pronunciation is eye-zeye-uh.
>
> --
> Scott R. Knitter
> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
>


-- 
Simon Kershaw
simon at kershaw.org.uk
Saint Ives, Cambridgeshire