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How is the word agunah pronounced?
With sadness (and other negative feelings)…
patach under the ayyin, kumeitz under the nun.
Ah – goo – nah
It is mil’rah with the accent on the nun.
Arguably the word is at the same time a word in Hebrew, Yiddish and English (and will be found in dictionaries of all three languages, albeit with some differences in meaning – in English the term almost always refers to a woman whose husband is refusing to give a get, whereas the original meaning was exclusively to a woman whose husband had vanished). Depending on language, the accent shifts.
Either ah-GOO-nah or ah-goo-NAH would be correct. It depends on whether or not you are speaking Israeli-inflected Hebrew, or regular Ashkenazis.
In America, it is often pronounced with a soft U (as in “push”)
and, as mentioned, with the accent on the middle syllable.
Comlink-X, In America words are often mispronounced.
I didn’t say that that was the correct pronunciation…
I remember reading once about how confusing it must be for
ba’alei teshuvah to hear about an “OI’heiv yis-RUH-el,”
and be taught to say in Ma’ariv, “oi’HEIV a-MOI Yis-ruh-EIL.”
Use agunah in a sentence: Agunah have lunch with my bubby on Shabbos.
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