March 12. On this date in 1923, as an addendum to his letter to Western Bahá'ís, Shoghi Effendi wrote about the "Transliteration of Bahá'í Terms" noting a "list of the best known and most current Bahá'í terms, and other Oriental names and expressions, all properly and accurately transliterated..."

 

March 12. On this date in 1923, as an addendum to his letter to Western Bahá'ís (also here), Shoghi Effendi wrote about the "Transliteration of Bahá'í Terms" (also here) noting a "list of the best known and most current Bahá'í terms, and other Oriental names and expressions, all properly and accurately transliterated, the faithful spelling of which by all the Western friends will avoid confusion in future, and insure in this matter a uniformity which is greatly needed at present in all Bahá'í literature."

Transliteration of Bahá'í Terms

P.S. On another page [The complete list of terms is to be found in Bahá'í World, volume VII.] is given the list of the best known and most current Bahá'í terms, and other Oriental names and expressions, all properly and accurately transliterated, the faithful spelling of which by all the Western friends will avoid confusion in future, and insure in this matter a uniformity which is greatly needed at present in all Bahá'í literature. The full code will be duly communicated to the various National Assemblies, and the transliteration of the Oriental terms mentioned in the English letters sent out by the Haifa Spiritual Assembly will provide a correct and reliable supplement to the above-mentioned list. I feel confident that all the friends will from now on follow this system and adhere scrupulously and at all times to this code in all their writings.

The Bahá'í orthography used to transcribe Arabic and Persian words into Latin script relies on a system that was formally introduced by Shoghi Effendi in a letter dated March 20, 1925 noting "the transliteration of the Oriental terms mentioned in the English letters sent out by the Haifa Spiritual Assembly will provide a correct and reliable supplement to the above-mentioned list." 

This system is highly defective, however.

Consider the very name of the religion itself: "Bahá'í"

The accent and phonemic diacritic marks in the word "Bahá'í" indicate a three syllable pronunciation as [bæhɒːˈʔiː].

However, the official pronunciation guide of the Bahá'í World News Service gives a two syllable pronunciation of "Ba-HIGH," /bəˈhaɪ/.

The exact realization of the English pronunciation varies according to other sources. The Oxford English Dictionary has /bæˈhɑːiː/ ba-HAH-ee.  Merriam-Webster has /bɑːˈhɑːiː/ bah-HAH-ee. The Random House Dictionary has /bəˈhɑːiː/ bə-HAH-ee. These three dictionaries all give a pronounciation with three syllables. For more discussion, please see Banani, Amin, A Baha'i Glossary and Pronunciation Guide (MP3), Bahá’i Study and Shahrokh, Darius, "Windows to the Past Series", Bahá’i Library – A Guide to Pronunciation part 1 and 2, for more pronunciation instructions.

The defectiveness of Shoghi Effendi's orthography is also evidenced in the manner with which major encyclopedias spell the word "Bahá'u'lláh." For example, the Encyclopædia Britannica has an article about "Bahāʾ Allāh" and the

Encyclopædia Iranica has an article about "Bahāʾ-Allāh."

Form many other words, the Bahá'í orthographic transliteration can often differ markedly from more common standard transliterations presently in use...

Bahá'í Orthography	Standard Transliteration	Persian pronunciation	Arabic pronunciation	Perso-Arabic Spelling
Ádhirbáyján	Azerbaijan	[ɒzeɾbɒːjˈdʒɒːn]	[ʔæðeɾbiːˈdʒæːn]	آذربایجان
Fátimih	Fatima	[fɒːteˈme]	[fɑːˈtˤɪmæ, ˈfɑːtˤɪmæ]	فاطمه
Shoghí	Shawki	[ˈʃoːɣi]	[ˈʃæwʔi, ˈʃɑwqi]	شوقی
Siyyid	Sayyid	[sejˈjed]	[ˈsæjjɪd]	سيد