How to pronounce names

Josh Hunt said:

Let's say I run into a hard to pronounce name. Is there a way to get Logos to read it to me so I can learn to pronounce it?

Josh, you can always right click on the name and select the lemma form on the right side and select "pronounce" on the left side. It doesn't do too bad of a job, but there are some names that we pronounce differently in English.

May be this may help:

https://www.logos.com/product/7299/thats-easy-for-you-to-say-your-quick-guide-to-pronouncing-bible-names-3rd-ed 

Here are some to use a a sort of verbal sourdough starter:

Apharsathchites

Shealtiel
Epaenetus
artificer
rereward
Ahithaphel
Rhegium
Zerubbabel
Lycaonian
Artaxerxes
Asmodeus
Boanerges
Selophehad
Nehemiah (as I kid I once got laughed at for saying "knee HEME ee uh" which sounded like a disease)
Quirinius

David Paul said:

frankly I  don't understand why people are so concerned about "getting it right" 

For different reasons, but I agree I don't understand why people are so concerned about this issue either and have to feel embarrassed about not getting it right in reading the bible in a bible study group - the person sitting next to you probably has no better idea. 

Leo Wee Fah said:

May be this may help:

https://www.logos.com/product/7299/thats-easy-for-you-to-say-your-quick-guide-to-pronouncing-bible-names-3rd-ed 

[Y]

This is an excellent resource for name pronunciation. Some names in the resource do not have the speaker icon, but the majority does.

David Paul said:

Kishon is properly spelled Qiyshohn and pronounced Kee-SHONE.

The way I learned it was Khe-Sanh. Pronounced, 'kay sahn'.

Semper fi.

Who cares what is right.  We know we don't know that.  I just want to say it like the anyone around whom people think should know.  And I hate to butcher names badly in a crowd, stumbling, mumbling as people grin forgivingly.  I suspect that always being right will never be.  Having a book lends an air of authority, although they sometimes differ.  But we can appeal to the book or scholar our local crowd is most likely to see as authoritative. Maybe we should sort pronunciation books in Logos, tagged by denomination, seminary, etc.

Wait.  I know.  We need a sort of apparatus with a range of variants.  Then, when reading aloud we can explain all the variants and probably still get it wrong.

Gao Lu said:

Who cares what is right.

An odd sentiment regarding things Biblical.

Gao Lu said:

We know we don't know that.

Actually, "we" know that we DO know. Not absolutely everything, of course, but we know PLENTY. I put the "we" in italics because the "we" only includes those who don't throw their hands up and say things like "who cares what's right"...and I've heard that and similar statements multiple times on this forum. Oddly, many of those same opinions came from people wanting a resource to tell them what was "right" in the pronunciation department. By right, it seems that they wanted something that allowed them to "save face" in public settings. In essence, the gist seems to be, "correct doesn't matter...I just want agreement without embarrassment." That's embarrassing.

One thing that we know, apart from "what was", is what wasn't. One of my biggest gripes is that lots of stuff we "know never was" IS PRECISELY WHAT GETS TAUGHT. Often, the ones who do the teaching KNOW they are teaching nonsense, but it is perceived to be "agreeable" nonsense. Futato, for instance, repeats this malarkey in his widely used grammar, foisting a LIE on thousands of unsuspecting (and gullible) folks who don't bother doing their own homework...

Many folks realize that this is bogus, but it gets promoted and perpetuated as truth regardless. But IF YOU JUST STOP TO THINK, and don't allow yourself the luxury of passing over and ignoring the obvious contradictions this baloney engenders, it becomes OBVIOUS that this "teaching" is false. First of all, it's not a "chet" (like Chet Atkins), and it's not a "ket" either. It's hheitth, [pronounced like HATE, but with a guttural, aspirated H-sound and a softened T]. THERE IS NO K-SOUND IN HHEITTH AT ALL. But you wouldn't know that by the way LOTS of people pronounce it based on teachings like those found in Futato's chart above.

How can I be so confident a PhD is in error? This word...

This is Hh:anuukhkaah, which is spelled LOTS of different ways, but most often as Hanukkah or Chanukah. When pronounced, it is ALWAYS pronounced with an H-sound (or rarely with the correct guttural, aspirated H), but NEVER with a K-sound. Now, say "Bach". Say "loch". Hear the K-sound? Even if one quibbles that it isn't actually a K-sound, it is certainly K-"ish". Hheitth is NEVER K-"ish". It is H-"ish", but gutturally and aspiratedly so. In "The Chanukah Song", Adam Sandler says the C is silent, so there is no K-sounding Greek CH, as in "character". As a result, one must and can ONLY conclude that Futato (and the authors of many other Hebrew grammars, as well) is WRONG.

And by the way, yes, that's the same Futato that is responsible for FL's Mobile Ed: LA251 Introducing Hebrew Grammar, hitting electronic store shelves in a couple of weeks. Enjoy! If you get this Logos resource and study it well, at least you can have the satisfaction of knowing that you will be in company of others who care more about the easy path of avoiding public embarrassment than they do about achieving accuracy. 

I'm not going to get sucked into the "philologists' credo" that usage alone defines legitimacy. That "descriptive" mentality may suit a reportage perspective, but it also gives leeway to a means of usage that literally accepts "bad" as meaning "good". Considering what the Bible says about exactly that kind of behavior, I reject it.

You have a good point David, which I appreciate. There is a lot we do know.

Of course I care about "what is right" regarding Biblical things.  However for day to day pronunciation of Biblical names or places, I doubt that many people care so much about which time, locale, accent is exactly right. Right according to whom?  The writer?  What was his accent?  The original hearer?  A later reader?  When and where? 

Scholars care and should.  I have a particular interest words.  Even if we think we know a correct pronunciation for a time and location, I don't think we have much certainty about how to relate that to pronunciation today.  

If we try to say a name in Hebrew, chances are most of us can't get the gutturals right or nuances of modified vowel sounds. I think (?), the point of the OP was a question of how to say Biblical names in English.  There are other languages, but never mind those.  Different Translations sometimes spell names differently. I don't think we can even agree how to say many Biblical names in English.  And if we could, by what locale? What accent? 

I might be able to speak beautiful Shakespearean English (I don't) and you would all think William himself was standing there, but people in my church wouldn't know many words I was saying.  Oh for a muse of fire, that would ascend...

This may be straining at gnats, but backing away from the trees and appreciating the forest, I think all Dave wants is to know how to use Logos to to know how to say hard names.  I guess that was covered.

JoshInRI said:

I believe it should be built right into the software - easily found and easily used.  If OliveTree or Accordance or BibleWorks or something else ever get basic functionality down...Logos will be left in the dust.

It is my opinion that those options are headed off to port.  What they once offered in simplicity (like the Logos Libby Label once did) is being weighted down by layer after layer of options. Each has some teensy advantage.

One thing about Logos is that with one whoosh of the table cloth you can clear the decks.  I keep an icon top front and center for that purpose. Then everything is slick, lean and fast.  But in no time I start adding bells and whistles I can't live without. My biggest problem is me.  How can we have our full Thanksgiving meal with seconds and desert and stay skinny too?  Actually Logos does a pretty good job at providing that--it is the best out there overall.