Bahá’í Terminology Pronunciation

A non-technical introduction for readers

First, watch this video introduction, then use the notes below for practice and reference.

Bahá’í literature often contains Arabic and Persian terms transliterated using a simple and relatively phonetic system. Most of the letters are pronounced much as an English reader would expect. The Arabic and Persian languages are very regular, so once the reader is familiar with a few basic rules, it is fairly easy to sound out new words.

I.  Vowels:

Correct vowel sounds are extremely important in Persian - but also easy to learn because they are few in number and very consistent.

• short a - like a in dad or sam  (Aḥmad,  Aqdas)
  long á - like ah in father or law  (Bahá,  Vafá,  Sháh)
  
  
• short i and suffix ih - like eh in bed or sled  (Ṭáhirih,  Imám,  Islám,  Karbilá,  Rúz-bih)
  long í - like ee in tree or ski  (Íqán,  Shíráz,  Bahá’í)
  
  
• short u and aw - like o in boat or sow  (Mullá,  Bahá’u’lláh,  Ḥusayn,  Sunní,  Naw-Rúz)
  long ú - like oo in grew or stew  (Abú-Ṭálib,  Dávúdí,  Quddús)
  
  
• diphthong iy or ay - as ‘ay’ in say or hay  (Siyyid,  Ḥusayn,  Shaykh)

II.  Dots and Underscores:

The Arabic alphabet occasionally includes two similar variants of a letter -- in which case the second is indicated by a dot-under (h-ḥ,  s-ṣ,  t-ṭ etc.). Most are simply pronounced as an English reader would intuitively expect, ignoring the dot.  (Ḥusayn,  Aḥmad,  Ṭihrán, Iṣfahán)

Occasionally, the Arabic alphabet includes a letter for which there is no equivalent in English. These are indicated by using an underscored combination to get as close as possible to the expected English pronunciation. For example, sh,  kh and gh   (Shaykh,  Khán,  Baghdád,  Shíráz,  Aghṣán).

III.  Unexpected Pronunciations:

Although Persian uses the Arabic script, the Persian pronunciation varies from the Arabic in a few instances which will not be obvious to the English reader. Because they are not similar to English, learning these five exceptions is especially important.

• ḍ and dh - are each pronounced ‘z’  (dhabíh,  Riḍván,  Riḍá,  Adhkár)
• th - is pronounced as ‘s’  (Ḥadíth,  Athím,  Kawthar)
• as mentioned earlier, u and aw - are pronounced as ‘o’  (Kawthar,  Lawḥ-i-Sulṭán,  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá)

IV.  Finally, a few Miscellaneous Rules:

• the ‘r’ is rolled very lightly  (Fárs,  Khiḍr,  Rúmí,  Biḥár)
• an apostrophe mid-word is simply a brief stop  (Bahá’í,  Shí‘ih,  Qur’án,  Mu‘ávíyih)
• adjacent consonants are pronounced separately  (Baṭḥá,  Sangisar,  Bahjí,  Aḥmad,   Aqdas,  Najrán)
• kh is pronounced as a hard ‘k’ like the Scottish loch  (Khadíjih,  Khaybar,  Shaykh)
• ‘q’ and ‘gh’ are pronounced as a deep ‘g’  (Íqán,  Aqdas,  Quddús,  Qur’án,  Afghánistán,  Baghdád)
• connecting vowels stick to the first word  (Kitáb-i-Íqán,  Ibn-i-Málik,  Alláh-u-Abhá)
• for doubled consonants, pause twice as long  (Quddús,  Muḥammad,  Mullá)

Terms Encountered in Each Book: