We just found out this morning we’re having a girl so I can finally get serious about a name! Yay! We love biblical or faith based names, [name]Selah[/name] is a word used repeatedly in psalms, I’m just not entirely sure how to pronounce it. Any Hebrew scholars out there? Is it like sea-la or say- la? I’ve always heard it as sea- la and I like it that way but I need to be sure. We also like [name]Esther[/name] and [name]Eden[/name] but something about [name]Selah[/name] is really appealing to me right now… any opinions?
Congratulations! [name]Love[/name] [name]Selah[/name]! I know a little girl [name]Selah[/name] that her parents pronounce it both ways.
Not much Hebrew knowledge here, but an informed hobby linguist: If I’m not mistaken, in Biblical Hebrew (which uses a totally different alphabet anyway) the vowels weren’t recorded, so it’s not like we have a clear model to work from, just tradition? Wikipedia (not the best source, I know, but it’s paraphrasing something that seems more reputable) even questions whether something transcribed as English E is even the right vowel, that it might have been Sollah, or something similar.
Anyway, in most languages other than English, the [name]Roman[/name] letter e doesn’t represent the long E sound, and the talk on behindthename keeps coming back to the idea that in Hebrew this might have been more like seh-lah (sella). But no idea if that’s right or not though.
I do think that in [name]Christian[/name] traditions (not sure if that is yours but guessing so…) both See-lah and [name]Say[/name]-lah get said in the context of liturgical readings of the Psalms. So I think See-lah, your preferred, is totally “valid” in that regard - and so is [name]Say[/name]-lah and Sella, I bet – I mean [name]Jesus[/name]'s name in Aramaic was not [name]Jesus[/name], [name]Eve[/name] in Hebrew was not [name]Eve[/name], I don’t think [name]Rachel[/name] was pronounced [name]Ray[/name]-chel but something closer to [name]Raquel[/name] as in Spanish, [name]Eden[/name] was probably said differently too, our own language of English has taken these things for its own, and that’s OK (to me).
I like the name quite well, by the way!
Oh here is the BTN link
I think it’s pretty. I’ve always said [name]Say[/name]-lah, but I’ve heard See-lah as well.
Oh, also, Forvo.com is often good.
Here it is in Hebrew, between Seh-la/Sella and [name]Say[/name]-lah (just a vowel that has no English exact equivalent).
But I suspect this is modern Hebrew, which is not always identical to Biblical Hebrew by any means
[name]Say[/name]-lah is my first instinct in English, but if I met a girl named [name]Selah[/name] prn’d See-lah, I wouldn’t bat an eye…
My sisters name is [name]Sela[/name] without the H. She prounouces it [name]Say[/name]-la but, a lot of people misspronouce and say Seela or [name]Sailor[/name].
[name]Selah[/name] is pronounced [name]Say[/name]-lah, which means “Rest”. Another biblical name similar to [name]Selah[/name] is [name]Sela[/name], pronounced See-luh, like [name]Sela[/name] [name]Ward[/name], and means “[name]Rock[/name]”. [name]Both[/name] are beautiful.
I love the combo [name]Esther[/name] [name]Selah[/name], which would mean “[name]Star[/name] of Rest”. I love it!
Good info, thanks everyone. I think it’ll be a top contender for our sweet girl!