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Pronunciation of 'Baal'


LutherMax

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I pronounce it "Baaal", or "Barl" I suppose. But I've heard other peeps (mainly in YouTube batreps etc) pronounce it "Ball", or "Bael".

 

It's a symptom of the English language, in most other European languages there is only one way to pronounce a word based on the letters used, and no confusion. But I guess that's what makes English fun :D

 

So, what's the consensus?

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Seeing the biblical/hell-theme some BA names have, e.g. Dante (from Dante's Inferno), Mephiston (from Mephisto) and Astorath (from Sodom and Gomorrah), I'm guessing Baal is from the demon:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_%28demon%29

 

Which is pronounced as /ˈbeɪl/ or 'BAYL'.

I do like my predecessors in Stargate SG-1. Which is "Bahl". Reason being is because the actual, normal spelling is supposed to be Ba'al, which makes the pronunciation "Ba-ahl". Although more fluid so it's actually more like "Bahl". What happens is that circa Rennaissance era, the term was Italianicized(is that the right term?) into Baal(Bayl) and in the Anglicized versions of the word, the apostrophe is dropped so it is spelled Baal, but still pronounced "Bahl".

 

So it's like the whole R'as(Rawz)vsR'as(Raysh) argument, which is both are right and flies down to which dialect of Arabic you are speaking. Besides, even the director of BtAS said he used the wrong pronunciation and it should be Rawz. :P

 

So all of the various pronunciations are correct, but until an audiobook comes out, it is personal interpretation. Although they could always do like DC and throw in all of the various pronunciations just to screw with people.

i actually did a fair amount of research on this a few years back, and eventually found my way onto some bible-forum thing where this very same thing was discussed (Baal being a biblical demon as previously mentioned and all).

 

the verdict was that both "bael" and "baahl" are actually correct, and either is fine

however if you had to choose one, "bael" would kinda have to be it, based on the name being a shortened version of "beelzebub", which is pronounced either "Beehlzebub" or "baelzebub", the "bael" part being in common here between the names making it more likely that it is indeed the original/correct pronunciation

It's much like how people from different towns pronounce "a" when saying something like, "I have a way."

 

Some people pronounce it with the hard a, so "ay"

Some people pronounce it like "uh."

 

English can't decide on a sound for the exact same word so it's not a big deal XD

If it's named after the demon then it's bayl. Not really any ambiguity there, other pronunciations come from not knowing this origin of the name or its pronunciation.

The case is that despite the obviosity of relations warhammer uses this in manner as recent Ghost keel.

Because they can't simply write Ghost kill.

So they slightly shift all that obvious connections.

 

So I personaly  prefer to  pronounce Ba-al just to separate this termins.

And there is some local thing that in my language Baal (beelzebub) is actually pronounced from V - Vaal (Veel zevul) wich is closer to arabic/hebrew origin where the first word sound in two parts ( Hebrewבַּעַל זְבוּב‎, Baʿal ZəvûvArabicبعل الذباب‎, Ba‘al adh-Dhubāb)

But for proper english style its bael (like Christian Bale but with softer L :) )

But for proper english style its bael (like Christian Bale but with softer L smile.png )

Is that English English or American English? Because if it's English English, then it changes "proper" to mean a different sort of English than American English's "proper" would imply about the proper English pronunciation. That last proper was meant in American English, for all you English English whom may be reading.

I have way too much fun writing goofy crap like that. Although re-reading it now, it may still be too easy to follow laugh.png

But the key point is this is a very, very old word being adopted to our modern, silly accents. In odd cases like this, I'm willing to roll with 'Baahl' and 'Bael' alike.

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