consonants

c as in clean	The following letters are unmarked
ç ″ ″ cieling	and are to be pronounced with their
g ″ ″ game	normal English sounds:
ġ ″ ″ gentle s ″ ″ sail	b, d, f, h, j, k, 1, m, n, p, r, t, v, w, z
ş ″ ″ rose (z)	ch as in ache (k)
x ″ ″ x-ray (eks)	ph ″ ″ phone (f)
x ″ ″ xylophone (z)	th ″ ″ thick

For some widely used names, as the reader undoubtedly is aware, more than one acceptable pronunciation may be heard; however, in this edition of the Holy Bible but one such standard pronunciation is recorded. It can also be noted that certain Biblical names have become generic terms in English with a secondary or derived meaning which becomes reflected in its pronunciation. Philistine is a good example; Phĭ·lĭs′tĭnes, Phĭ′lĭs·tĭnes, Phĭ′lĭs·tīnes, phĭ′lĭs·ti(=ē)nes; the first, the name of the ancient people of Philistia; the second, a widely used variant; the third, originally British in origin; and the last the generic modern term.

It will also be observed that the letter sounds represented by ạ, ẹ, ị, ọ, and ụ are the unstressed vowels of normal English speech. When these same sounds are influenced by a following letter “r″ they are marked as ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, and ũ, as shown in the familiar illustrative key words.

The word accent or stress in English follows a pattern different from that of other languages both classical and modern. By noting the stressed syllable, indicated by (′) for primary stress and (″) for secondary stress, most of the names are pronounced without any difficulty in reading running text.

When pronunciation for proper names is indicated in the text, the first time a given word is used in a verse the pronunciation is shown, but on its subsequent appearance in the same verse, the pronunciation is not repeated.