An article in the current Yankee magazine about a wiccan temple in
Providence, R.I., mentions in passing that Samhain is pronounced
"SAH-win."  I had no idea.  Could someone please enter a list of
commonly used pagan words and their correct pronunciations?

56 responses total.

I always thought it was pronounced "sam-ain" (Same as pain)

i heard it pronounced "sah- WAIN"... but that was in hicksville indiana.
probably the local accent.

asatru is said "AAH-sah-true" or like OW-sah-true, with the first part
sounding like 'house' with a silent 'h'.
i've heard others say "ASS-a-true" and "a-SAHT-rue", but it could be
a regional dialect. most people's voices out here are flat and whistley.

Samhain:  SAU-in or so-WEEN are the most common.  Originally, the mh 
represented a voiceless bilabil nasal, but this sound is no longer used
in most dialects of Gaelic and has been replaced with a slightly nasal
w.  The stress depends on the Pagan.
Beltane:  BEL-tayn or BYEL-tyin, depending on the Pagan and the spelling.
Wicca:  usually WICK-a, although occasionally VICK-a or even VEETCH-a.  The
v is etymologically correct, the tch silliness based on Italian.
Brighid:  breed or breejd (where the j is the middle sound in azure).
Imbolg:  im-BOLG or im-BOL-ig (or with a k sound if spelled imbolc)
That's all that come to mind right now
Feel free to ask about others.

h is always silent, Iggy.  :)  But I know what you meant.  (Never do 
pronunciations around a linguist unless you expect ribbing.  :)

Germanic stress rules would confirm AH-sah-true.
English stress rules would suggest ah-SAH-true, accounting for that 
pronunciation.

        Well, gaelic makes for some weird-looking words..
        Like the scottish sword, the "claymore" is actually spelled some
weird way I don't remember..
        Or, sidhe <you still out there??>, which is pronounced "shee", is
another good example..

Also, the word "Celtic" is pronounced with a hard "c" at the beginning, as
opposed to the soft "c" that has been used for the name of Boston's pro
basketball team.

my old norse language tape says OW-sa-true.
when i said it like that, nobody knew what i was trying to say. ;-)

Does it have an accent mark over the first A?  That would explain that...

yeah, i believe there is..

Once around the wheel (isn't that a chant tape? <g>), as best I can;
Samhain- SAwen.  Brighn explained it well.  Refers, believe it or not, to
the end of summer.

Yule is an A/S word, I think.  In Scots I think it's Alban Ghievre [Yeevra],
refering to the winter season.

Imbolc- IMulookh or IMbolk (like bowl with a k) or IMbolg; either means
great belly or ewe's milk or something like that- refers to the pregnant/
lactating sheep and general burgeoning of life unseen (oh, can also mean
"in the belly")

I pronounce Brigit as most would expect, but her Irish name is Brid,which
is pronounced [breej].

Spring Equinox, from Scots (I think I remember this right) is Alban Eiler.

The correct pronounciation for May day, which hardly anyone uses, is
BELL-chinna.  Refers to Bel's fire.  It's easier to deal with, for modern
English speakers, if Samhain and Beltain (drop the final e) more-or-less
rhyme, even though the names don't actually parallel one another.

I would think midsummer would be Alban Samhre (pronounced [sour-uh]), but
I seem to recall something like Mean Samhre (pronounce man, not meen), so
I may be misremembering some stuff.  OK- mid winter would be Mean Ghievre,
too, and "mean" seems to mean something like "high".

Aug. 1 is Lughnasadh, pronounced [loonasah].  People always thing it's the
birthday of Lugh (pronounced Lew), but I gather it actually means wedding
of Lugh or something like that.  In addition to being the first of harvest,
it came from the funeral games decreed by the god Lugh Lamfada in honor
of his foster-mother's death, but the resultant fair became known as a
time to declare 1-year handfastings and so associated with marriage, I don't
know if there's a further story there.  It's also known as Lammas. (lah-mahss)

I don't remember the name for Fall Equinox.  Anyone compulsive enough to
care, ask and I'll go look it up.  Sorry.  Oh- I think it's Alban Heifir.
Don't know the meaning.

Which brings us back to Samhain.  
Anyone want to guess if the antlered god is CERnunon or cerNUnos?

And I've heard A-thu-may, AH-thu-may, u-THAH-may, and ah-THAM.  Pick 
favorites?  Common wisdom says it just means "knife", in ritual practice
it refers specifically to the black handled knife which is used only for
ritual/non-physical work (the white handled work-knife which will actually
cut is a "boleen"), but I gather that it originally came from an old wood
cut or print reproduction which had it on the handle of an alchamist's knife,
and that in the picture it was a repro of, the word is Adonai, a hebrew
name of god.  Go figure...  Me, I figure if it cuts, it's a knife. <g>

What else?

*grumbles twice about kami's explanation of Beltaine but reserves
further comment*

yule is also norse.
many modern christmas traditions came along with the word too. :-)

As long as we are currently dealing with the norse, I thought I would
add these god name pronouncements here.

Thor (forget the h, it's silent as are h's in most Norse words)
Odin, Odhinn, Wodan, Wotan: "Oo-din"
Idun: "Eden"
Much to my dismay, Vidar is actually pronounced "V darr"

Don't grumble, Brighn, speak up; with what do you disagree?  Alternate 
versions are most welcome.
Thanks, Bjorn.How do you pronounce such important terms as 
the homes of gods, men and giants, etc.?
Gee, wonder what happened to Phaedrus- I'd like his versions of some
of the Yoruba names.

Jotunheimen: "yo 10 Hi men"
Utgard: "oot gard"
Nidvalier (which also has other spellings): Like it is spelled
Midgard, Mittgard: Depending on the spelling, prounounce as is.
Alfheim: "all f heim"
Svartalfheim: add the prefix as "Svart"

Other thingies
Fenris, Fenrir: Like it is spelled, Fenrir is actually used more often
Jormundgand (the Mittgard Serpent): "your mund gahnd"

the main grumble was with the word "correct"", Kami
There is no "correct" pronunciation.
There is a standardly accepted pronunciation.
There is a historically reconstructed pronunciation.

And I'll grumble and voice that I disagree without providing specifics as much 
as I please. 

Commonly accepted, being the majority rule, is therefore the *correct*
way.

I hate acting like a Vulcan, but I needed to clear that up, I think.

Er, sorry Brighn, I actually should have said; modern Irish pronounciation.
I can't stop you grumbling, but it's non productive if we don't know what
it's about.  If it's non productive, it derails or weakens the thread of
the item.  Up to you, deary.

I have naught to say but that I agree.

Fine, then next time I won't bother to say that I disagree.
I felt like the issue of "correct" is something I've discussed before with
you, Kami, and therefore felt that anything more than an "I disagree" 
disclaimer was unnecessary.
Now instead I've been made to look like a curmudgeon.
Please don't call me deary, by the way.  I know you don't mean it poorly,
but I find the word excessively condescending.

And bjorn, if standard pronunciation is the litmus for "correct", then
"BELL-tain" is "correct"... I was trying to avoid an argument about the
meaning of the word "correct", because THAT's unproductive and is throwing
this entire DISCUSSION off-track.

I hardly see how a post of "I disagree, but I don't wish to detail why"
is derailing the conversation.  Condescending, perhaps, but it wasn't 
mean that way.

But I shall refrain from doing it again in the future.

True, but I never said who the majority was.

ok, lets put it to a vote:
how many people think the 'majority' are idiots?

"aye" <hand shoots upward>

"aye"

 "aye"

aye

Aye
<Starwolf always thought "sidhe" was pronounsed like the first syllable of
"shade" and finds nothing wrong with occasionally acting like a Vulcan as long
as you take care at to which vulcan you act like ;}>

YOu've been vulcanized?  Does it give you a bouncy personality or make
you impervious to rain?
Yup, sidhe is pronounced "she".

Funny.  I wasn't thinkins "she" but "shay"

And the way of making an Irish noun feminine is to put "ban"
in front of it, so a femail Fairy would be a bansidhe,
pronounced "banshee".  And now you now what a banshee is!  >8)

Might be a dialectic/regional difference, but I'm not sure why idhe would
be pronounced "ay".  Possibly, if you feel the final e isn't lost, it
would be shee-uh, but with the final sound quite small.  Thanks, Rob, that's
a fun little detail.  Oh and while we're on faerie creatures, the nightmare/
phooka/water horse (I"ve forgotten it's other name) is called the Each Uisce
(lit. water horse), pronounced ech (like blech or loch- the hard CH you find
in German or Hebrew or Scots) whiskey.  Yup- whiskey just means water...<g>

So if we order whiskey and water, we're being redundant?  >8)

I suppose one's hard and one's soft, but I"m not always sure which is which...

        Well, there's the irish name Shea, which means "of the wee ones"

Or "of the mounds"- meaning the hollow hills; implication is unknown fathering,
or else a connection to the unseen.

        Hrm.  I'd always thought "banshee" came from "Baobahn Sidhe" ... but
I'm sure I'm massacreing the correct spelling.

Modern Irish would be bean sidhe (bean=woman) sidhe= mound/hollow hill).

        I *think* you're both right, but I think that one is how the name
worked from the old legends, and how it works today.

Yeah, like the spelling matters in Gaelic...  "Hi, my name is
Robert, but in Gaelic, it's spelled Pokuistanppl."  >8)

        Of course it is.
Mine's Shellannhagh. I'm not kidding.
Pronounce it just like "sell-ee-nah" and you have it.

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