Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading

Pesach means the Seder, matza, maror, wine, hagada... and lots more, It also means HALLEL, even though we only say the full Hallel on the first day (and the preceeding night). For the remainder of the Chag, we skip the first 11 p'sukim of two of the chapters of T'hilim that make up Hallel. So let's polish some of the pronunciation pitfalls contained therein. Let's look at the last two p'sukim of Ps. 114, B'TZEIT YISRA'EL, which is not only part of Hallel, but it is also the Psalm of the Day for the first day of Pesach, according to Minhag Yerushalayim.

MILF'NEI ADON CHULI ARETZ, MILFNEI ELOHAI YAAKOV. HAHOFCI ATZUR AGAM MAYIM, CHALAMISH L'MAYNO MAYIM.
Third word - CHULI is pronounced MIL'EIL, CHU-li.

And the sixth word - we've done this before. But some people refuse to believe what you are about to read. This word is one of G-d's names. It is very often mispronounced ELOHA. That's not correct. It is as incorrect as saying an apple is a TAPUCHA. When a CHET, HEI, or AYIN is the last letter of a word and there is a PATACHunder that letter, the PATACH is pronounced first and then comes the sound of the letter. TAPU-ACH, the A before the CH. RU'ACH, MIZBEI'ACH, etc. And the same goes for HEI with a MAPIK (dot) in it and a PATACH under it. The sound of the PATACH goes first, and then the aspirated HEI sound. The tree upon which Haman was hanged was GAVO-AHHH 50 AMA, not GAVOHA. G-d's name is ELO-AHHH, not ELOHA. AYIN works the same way, but Ashkenazim can hurt their throats if they try to say the Hebrew word for week, correctly. Let's stick to the HEI. And the well-known CHET. In addition to sounding the PATACH before the CHET or HEI sound, the accent is never on the last syllable, but on the one before it. ta-PU-ach, miz-BEI-ach, e-LO-ahhh. And so on. S'faradim do these words a little differently. Whereas the syllables of wind for an Ashkenazi are RU and ACH, a S'faradi draws out the U of RU until is takes on a W sound (which is the real consonant sound of a VAV, not a V) that blends with the ACH syllable. RUWACH. TA-PU- WACH. GAVO-WAHHH. That's what happens with a CHOLOM and a SHURUK. A CHIRIK and a TZEIREI lengthen to introduce a Y sound (the consonant sound of the YUD). Ashkenazim say MIZ-BEI-ACH. S'faradim say MIZ-BEI-YACH. PI-ACH. PIYACH. G-d's name, e-LO-wahhhh. Ashkenazi - e-LO-ahhh.Incorrect pronunciation - e-LO-ha. We've said it before: this is one of G-d's names we are discussing. It behooves us to pronounce it correctly. In the context of Hallel, it is particularly irksome to hear a whole congregation singing ELOHA YAAKOV.
First word of last pasuk. HA-HO-F'CHI. SH'VA NA under the FEI. It belongs to the following syllable, not the previous one. Not HA-HOF-CHI, but HA-HO-F'CHI. Accent on the F'CHI syllable. MILRA.

Watch out not to blend AGAM and MAYIM. A slight pause between the two words will keep the final MEM of the former and the initial MEM of the latter, distinct.
Next to the last word. SH'VA NACH under the AYIN. SH'VA NA under the YUD. First syllable L'MA* (the star means the AYIN is silent in Ashkenazi pronunciation of a guttural click in S'faradi pronunciation), second syllable, Y'NO (as in Brooklynese for you know, y'no what I mean?). L'MA-Y'NO MA-YIM.
One more word from the AHAVTI chapter.

P'TA-YIM
See it big. First impression is that the word is P'TA-IM (or P'SAW-IM). But it isn't. The CHIRIK is not under the ALEF. It is under the YUD. Nothing is under the ALEF. When that is so, the ALEF is totally invisible. Inaudible. As if it weren't there at all. P'TA-YIM. TIFN. Chag Sameach