In recent years there has been an increasing interest in performing Jewish choral literature on programs other than within the Jewish Service. Academic training in higher education usually neglects this area in both repertoire and proper performance. There are no set guidelines available for pronouncing the transliterations that appear in the literature, short of learning to read the actual language and then having that Hebrew written in the music.
Listed below is a system compiled by this writer that is based on selected, yet common, Jewish choral music. This system includes a variety of ways one Hebrew sound may be transliterated. The phonetic symbols in the fourth column employ the International Phonetic Alphabet symbols and .the stress mark, which precedes the stressed syllable, as used in Kenyon and Knott. A Pronouncing Dictionary To American English, (G & C Merriam Company, 1953).
A very helpful source has been an article on transliteration compiled by a committee representing faculty from several Vowels Hebrew institutes including: Hebrew Union College, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Rabbinical Assembly, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis. [Contact the author for more information on this article, Editor.] They have formulated a specific sign for each sound (the ones marked with an *) in the hope of having this become a universally accepted system someday soon.
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