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EXPLANATION
of the ORDER of
and PHONETIC GUIDE to
the PRONOUNCIATION of
HER NAMES

During the foetal stage of Her Cycle of Transformations the issue of which Goddess to what day, and why, had to be resolved. That the annual Cycle might be as true as possible over the globe was a concern and a guidance for She is world-wide (see the Tenets of HolladayPaganism). With Spring this side of the globe and there Autumn, Winter in that hemisphere while here mid-Summer, the poles and equatorial regions too having their different seasons, a seasonal distribution had to be inappropriate.

And there was also the problem of pronunciation, that when spoken Her names might be recognised by Herself, if She is to be invoked, and by speakers of the language which named Her. From the problem of pronunciation came the identification of forty phonemes (or what I've chosen to call phones because they are perhaps not always precisely phonemes) used in English speech. To represent the forty sounds, forty symbols are used -- twenty-three alphabetic letters, two redundant letters reassigned and fifteen new characters. From the forty phoneme-symbols a mnemonic sentence was composed. By the order of the sounds in the sentence, each Goddess finds Her place in the calendar. With the aid of the sentence each sound is recalled, Her names can be spoken, She can be invoked!

the mnemonic sentence

(a mantra if you will)

is as follows:

A_ch! f_air J_u_n_o, w_i_se b_ow_ed h_a_g,

sh_a_pe th_e th_ough_t c_oi_l m_ea_s'_r_i_ng

ea_ch o_f u_s.

A font has been developed in which each of these sounds is represented by a single character. Designed in 1986 by Judy Detrick, calligrapher, the character set was subsequently scanned and digitized into a true-type font (using Corel-Draw).

Since HTML is currently limited in fonts, type-script characters (having some mnemonic value) have been substituted where necessary, viz: 



  *  X!  F    =   J  W  N  O   U  I  Z   B  9   D   H  @  G,   

A--ch!  f--air   J--u--n--o,  w--i-se   b-ow--ed   h--a--g,  


 $  A   P    Ð 6   3    4 T   K   %  L   M   ]  g   R  Y   Ñ  

sh--a--pe   th-e  th-ough-t   c--oi--l   m--ea--s ' r--i--ng  


  E  C   0  V   1  S.   

 ea-ch   o--f   u--s.
Because English doesn't use some phones made by speakers of other languages it has not been possible to incorporate such sounds (nor have all of them been identified) into the mnemonic sentence. Only two (according to my researches so far) of these additional un-English sounds occur in the Goddess names for each day: 

				    phonemes symbols
		            typescript form     handwritten form
"u" as in "uber"  		8    	

and the rolled "r"              r
Where they occasionally affect the interior ordering of names they are added to the end of the mnemonic sentence in the sequence 8 r. For example: COVENTINA, whose second letter is the last vowel in the mnemonic, is followed by CYBELE, whose second letter is the Greek upsilon pronounced approximately like the umlauted u, and She in turn is followed by CREIDDYLAD since the Welsh r is rolled.

It is a simplified phonetic writing system designed for lay use. People differ in the way they speak the same language and many may pronounce parts of the mnemonic sentence differently from its originator. For a more precise identification of the sounds associated with each phonogram see the appendix "Compelling Spelling Reasons for an Expanded Alphabet".

A gloss for the sentence might be:

German style exclamation (Ach!) invoking and appealing to the elan vital anthropomorphised (Fair Juno, wise bowed Hag...) to make our individual ways of being an accurate reflection of our experience (...shape the thought coil measuring each of us).

A true linguist could, of course, compose a polyglot sentence which would incorporate all phonemes used by humanity. Such a sentence would be an ideal order for the grams; something all the world's children would learn in kindergarten and never forget throughout their lives.

KEY TO TYPOGRAPHICAL SYMBOLS


other than those used in the phonetic sequence
[] = compilers comments and suggestions.
At the begining of his index to the Greek Myths Vols 1 & 2, Robert Graves says "Many of the meanings [of the names] are doubtful". But he does give meanings in almost every case and surely the meaning of a Deities name, as the meaning of any abstraction, is a vital part of the concept. I have therefore followed Robert Graves in meaning where no other scholars have commited themselves. When I have ventured a meaning myself it is enclosed in square-brackets. So, also, are my occasional expansions of a Goddesses description to incorporate some recent scientific understanding, or where I have made an occasional addition to those plants, animals or things which are sacred to some particular Goddess when it seemed appropriate.

<> = enclose the original name of a culture-immortal who has become known by another name.

Many writer's names are pseudonymns and of course there are other reasons why the name by which a person is well-known differs from their original name not the least familiar being the change of a woman's name due to marriage. That women have no hereditary name showing their matrilinial descent but exist only as daughter's of fathers, and later perhaps, only as wives of potential father's is a curious effect of these patriachal times. But even though a woman's original surname is no more her's than is her marriage surname I have choosen to enclose it (and other original names) in this style of parenthesis - when it's known.

F.W.


Return to the top of this document. First written 9/87, Revised September, July 1995.

phone 2 (FON) n. Linguistics. A speech sound considered without reference to its status as a phoneme or an allophone in a language. [Greek phone, sound, voice.]
pho·neme (FONEM) n. Linguistics. The smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning, as the m of mat and the b of bat in English. [French phonème, from Greek phonema, phonemat-, utterance, sound produced, from phonein, to produce a sound, from phone, sound, voice.
Indo-European root bha-2 . . . 6. Suffixed o-grade form *bho-na. Derived words: phone 2, -phone, phoneme, phonetic, phono-, -phony; anthem, (antiphon), aphonoa, cacoponous, euphony, symphony, from Greek phone, voice, sound, and (denominative) phonein, to speak.