Guide To Pronunciation

The following list is compiled to show pronunciation of the Anglicised forms of non-English names or words; that occur in Royal Arch Masonry. (Also useful in other Concordant bodies of the Craft). No attempt has been made to cater-for native or localised dialect. With regard to Hebrew, the different sects will adhere to their own pronunciations, but so far as Latin is concordant, as the true pronunciation has been lost, there are separate schools, literally, in the treatment of that language. If a particular form is preferred then that surely is the one to use for one should be true to the truth that one knows. What is ‘right’ to one Companion may be ‘wrong’ to another and the purists should be left to argue among themselves, as well as the rival schools. Speaking of ‘Rivals’, Sheridan’s effort in particular, this guide may well be of assistance to a Companion who perhaps through lack of acquaintance with a given word or expression may otherwise have trodden in the footsteps of Mrs Malaprop; who has not heard an inclusion of that nature in Freemasonry?

In some words the letters ‘I’ and ‘J’ are interchangeable,  as indeed are ‘J’ and ‘Y’, and often  the letters ‘B’ and ‘V’ in Hebrew. An example of this kind of adaptability is shown in the word ‘Alleluia’ which occurs in Revelations, chapter 19, and may be seen printed as ‘Halleluiah’ or ‘Halleluiah’, or ‘Hallelujah’. It derives from the Hebrew ‘Hallal’ for ‘praise’ and ‘jah’ which is an abbreviated form of the Ineffable name to mean LORD and occurs in Psalm 68. It is often used as a suffix in Hebrew names amongst which are: Elijah, Isaiah, Josiah, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, and Zedekiah, which all have an obvious meaning that refers to God.

Where stress should be voiced the phonetic spelling in this list has the appropriate syllable in ‘Italics’.