elijah - hard or soft j?

[chellechelle26]

do I pronounce it as it is e-lye-jah or e-lye-zhuh?

When I say it out loud, the soft-j pronunciation sounds pretentious. Like the way people here say 'Tar-zhay' when they're pretending to make 'Target' (the shop) sound up-market.

I've always thought of it as being pronounced with a hard J.

Elijah is the English form of a Hebrew name, so it doesn't have a Hebrew pronunciation. Therefore, I would say that technically, that means both of the pronunciations listed by the OP are "acceptable" in English. It's a case of preference. To answer the OP's question, I pronounce Elijah with a soft J, unless corrected.

The original Hebrew form is Eliyahu, pronounced eh-lee-a-hoo. There is no J sound (soft or hard) in Hebrew. Where there's a J in a Biblical name, it will be a Y in its Hebrew form; Joel is from Yoel, Judith is from Yehudit, for example.

And no one says Zhoel or Zhudith ... are there other times when we do use a soft j in English? (I can't think of any offhand, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything!)

It would be assumed to be a hard J by churchgoers you meet.

I have an Elijah and use a soft J. As do 99% of the people we meet, including churchgoers. Both are equally acceptable so it really is a matter of preference.

Never heard anyone pronounce it with a soft 'j' in the UK.

Soft j for us!

But if it is pronounced Eliza won't people think it is a girl's name? I have only ever heard the J pronounced like the J in jam or Jesus.

bunbaker it isn't pronounces like Eliza at all though so no risk of confusion. Eliza has a hard 'Z' sound whereas Elijah is a soft J like the french J in Jacques. It's a 'zh' sound rather than 'Z'.

Sorry. I misunderstood. I still haven't ever heard it pronounced with a soft J before which account for my confusion.

It reminds me of the name Cheryl. I had a best friend at school with the name and the ch was pronounced like the ch in cheese or chocolate. Nowadays I hear it pronounced like sh. It's such a minefield these days.