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Being a long-time RPG player, there is an old god in the Forgotten Realms game named Baal and it's always been pronounced Baal. Same in the Diablo games. 

 The traditional English pronunciation indicated by all dictionaries is BAY-uhl 

 

In the poem The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron, he rhymes it with "wail"

 

And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,

The lances unlifted, the trumpets unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

 

Incidentally, BAAL is also the British Association for Applied Linguistics which is  BAHL.

Baal aka 'ball' aka "ba-al" aka "bhal" to my knowledge since forever. 

 

Bale - like set bail? is new to me.

 

But so was the way I keep hearing Legiones, tomato, aluminium etc in the audiodrama reads.

I think it's an English English thing perhaps =).

Edited by Crimson Ghost IX

I have also heard it pronounced Ba-rl, I think thats what Baphomet called Boon in Nightbreed. Ill watch it later and see, not to settle this discussion but purely because its an amazing film :wub:

 

Edit

 

Its Cabal in Nightbreed, still pronounced with the 'rl' though, not like that matters because its a different word lol

 

Thats the funny thing with these wordy things, we pronounce Romeo differently when we say 'Romeo and Juliette' and 'Alpha Romeo'. 

Edited by Slave to Darkness

Baal was the name of a mesopotamian deity mentioned in the Semitic religious texts. Baal shows up in the Bible as a non Jewish deity and historians have found the name in the region going back to 2000 years BC and more.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal

Ancient pronunciations don't matter.

 

What matters is how a bunch of northerners pronounce it, which is generally 'Barl'. 99% sure that's how Duncan pronounced it in the BA v Nids battle video, and that's how GW staffers up here pronounce it.

Baal was the name of a mesopotamian deity mentioned in the Semitic religious texts. Baal shows up in the Bible as a non Jewish deity and historians have found the name in the region going back to 2000 years BC and more.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal

Precisely why I say "BAY-ul." People need to realize that etymology is a thing, and linguistic history has a great deal of influence on modern speech and pronunciation. Baal (the ancient diety) is mentioned several times in the Bible, so the word has been around the block, so to speak.

 

All that said, to each his or her own, and I'm not sure that a "canon" pronunciation could ever exist due to the diversity of accents on this rock. E.g. American v. British pronunciation of "aluminum."

Ancient pronunciations don't matter.

 

What matters is how a bunch of northerners pronounce it, which is generally 'Barl'. 99% sure that's how Duncan pronounced it in the BA v Nids battle video, and that's how GW staffers up here pronounce it.

 

As an northerner, I can confirm this. That's certainly what I'm used to hearing.

 

All that said, to each his or her own, and I'm not sure that a "canon" pronunciation could ever exist due to the diversity of accents on this rock. E.g. American v. British pronunciation of "aluminum."

 

 

That's not a good example because the American and British pronunciations differ not because of accents, but because the words are actually spelled differently with the British adding an I, so aluminum vs aluminium. 

 

 

Thanks to Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction I pronounce Baal as "bale." After 16 years, I don't see that changing. "Ball" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Because nobody ever pronounces it "Ball" lol

My group does actually...

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