I swap back and forth. Two fun facts though. I looked it up and Google said it was pronounced “Rah has ali Ghul” because we needed it more complicated. Neal Adams insist that it is pronounced “raz”.
2 Likes
I thought it was Arabic not Hebrew?
2 Likes
@TheBatgirlofNML It is Arabic as far as I know. I was referring to @KeyFamily 's comment saying that “raysh” is a Hebrew pronunciation. I don’t speak Hebrew, but I know it has similarities with Arabic.
3 Likes
I’m pretty sure it’s translated to Death’s Head, but I pronounce it Raysh-Al-Ghoul.
1 Like
I do it like Rozz-All-Ghoul.
1 Like
You get the best of both worlds if you pronounce it “raise.”
I pronounce it Raz just like they did in the cartoon series in the 90s. Raysh is Hebrew and not how the name is pronounced.
1 Like
I say “Raysh” from the animated series. I’ve asked both Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams at conventions years ago and the funny thing is…even they aren’t on the same page. O’Neil told me he prefers “Raysh” while Adams says “Rahz”
I guess it all boils down to personal preference
2 Likes
Kevin Conroy says “Raysh”, and that’s good enough for me.
3 Likes
I wrote a column about this last year:
3 Likes
Roz
I say it like “Raysh”. As others have pointed out, that is the way it was pronounced in Batman The Animated Series. And to me BTAS is the definitive depiction of all things Batman. So it stuck with me.
Also, for those that are like “It comes from Arabic, so say it the Arabic way”, it’s a good argument, but word pronunciations change as the words get adopted by other languages. If you told a Japanese person the way they pronounce hamburger is wrong, it’s not hom-bah-gah…well you would be wrong. That IS the japanese pronunciation of hamburger. It’s their word at that point. Same can be said for names. My name of Sean was not originally pronounced like “Shyon”, but that is how it is pronounced now and how I pronounce it. So Ra’s name may have an Arabic origin, but the pronunciation could be different in 21st century Gotham City, U.S.A (or Nanda Parbat, or Infinity Island, or wherever).
Also I would like to point out that I have no problem with those that use the other pronounciations. The fact that no one knows how to say his name just makes him cooler.
2 Likes
Welcome to the Community, @burning_tyger! You make a lot of good points. I love and have read a lot of mythology, so I always thought he was a guy named Al Ghul who worked for/belonged to the god Ra. 
I was very confused when I actually read more stories with him and that was apparently not the case.
It’s great to have you here, and please let us know if there’s anything we moderators can help you with!