From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2013 #879 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe:mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Website:http://jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Thursday, June 27 2013 Volume 2013 : Number 879 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- RE: Hejira pronunciation ["Susan E. McNamara" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 16:19:13 +0000 From: "Susan E. McNamara" Subject: RE: Hejira pronunciation Great Gary!!! Thanks, I think she is saying he-djeer-a ... the d and j kind of meld together ... :) Susan Tierney McNamara email: sem8@cornell.edu From: Gary Z. [mailto:nyro_in_detroit@comcast.net] Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2013 11:12 AM To: Susan E. McNamara Cc: joni@smoe.org; onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: Re: Hejira pronunciation Hi Sue, Here's a video where Joni talks about Hejira (from "Painting with Words and Music"). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA6HGN1crNU Best, Gary Z. Detroit Susan E. McNamara wrote: Wow, Bob, this brings me on a quest to find a video interview where she pronounces it. It must be in Woman of Heart and Mind at least. Not sure. I was also reminded of the word Haj - another word describing the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. Susan Tierney McNamara email: sem8@cornell.edu From: Robert Sartorius [mailto:bobsart48@aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 9:49 PM To: joni@smoe.org; onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Cc: Susan E. McNamara Subject: RE: Hejira pronunciation Sue stated: "I've always pronounced it Heh-jeer-a ... and I think that's the way Joni pronounces it. I've heard many variations so I go with the way she says it." I think that's how Joni pronounces it, too, but I cannot pinpoint where I came to that conclusion. Can anyone else confirm? As "widely known" here on the list, the word does not appear in the song's lyrics - just the title. My "bible" (er, dictionary) has been the Random House Unabridged. I own the second Edition, which is copyrighted in 1987, and so is now 26 years out-of-date. Still, it is a magnificent tome, with exquisite dissertations on nuances of related words, to answer essentially every question that has ever come up in my conversations. Said "bible", inexplicably, does not list as one of its definitions (u.c., natch) "a masterpiece album and song by Joni Mitchell". They define(d) it as "hegira - def. 2", with a preferred pronunciation of " hi JEYE ruh" (i.e., short i in first syllable, long I in second syllable, accented). This is the pronunciation that I have used since I first "looked it up".The alternate pronunciation is "HEJ uhr uh", short e in first syllable, accent on first syllable. The pronunciation of Hegira is the same. The primary definition under Hegira (also, hejira) is "Islam. Hijra". The second definition is "any flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place". Hijra (HIJ ruh) short i in first syllable, accent on first syllable, in turn, is 1. The flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution A.D. 622, regarded as the beginning of the Muslim Era. 2. The Muslim Era itself. Also, Hegira, Hijrah (the latter of which is suggested as the Arabic source word). The Muslim Era is defined as the period since the flight of Muhammad from Mecca in AD 622 - also known as Hijra. Of course, similar loops could be constructed from any other dictionary, with numerous variations, no doubt. And, with the increase in the frequency of usage of Islamic terms in written and spoken English over the past 26 years, there has no doubt been some evolution since then. If this were Joni's name, I would argue that she gets to make the call. [For example, my wife's maiden name is Rosenbaum, and she pronounces the last syllable as "bomb" - which, it has been decreed, is her prerogative ;-)] But Joni admits she stole her title from her dictionary, so it seems to me that her dictionary's pronunciation should control, no? All Joni needs to do is to produce the one she consulted in 1975, and I will be happy to change the way I pronounce Hejira ;-) Bobsart ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2013 #879 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------