Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG]

Dear Yahua'sef (?),

I fear that whoever "always taught you" was one of the far too many 
people out there (especially pastors?) who have learned a little 
Hebrew and think they know everything when in fact they know almost 
nothing (the result of taking a typical seminary course?).

Well, what I have been taught from reliable sources is that the 
incorrect Anglicised pronunciation of YHWH is JEHOVAH, but YAHWEH is 
the most likely pronunciation of the original. As far as I know all 
reconstructions of ancient Hebrew include a "W" sound as the regular 
sound for the letter waw. The letters originally all reflected 
consonants, not vowels. The "H" found at the end of the name YHWH, but 
not in the names of prophets (and others) ending in -YAHU, probably 
indicates a final E or A vowel, and that the waw is a consonant not a 
vowel - whereas a word final waw generally indicates a long U sound 
(though it could also be -AW, pronounced like English "how"). The 
final H in YHWH is probably silent, whereas the first H is sounded, 
and it would be better to write YAHWE rather than YAHWEH (in English 
we would never try to pronounce a final H, but other languages would). 
By the way, in the Masoretic text the short form YAH has a mappiq in 
the final H to indicate that this H should be pronounced.

Very few Hebrew words are compounds of two words put together. (The 
names starting and ending in YAHU are exceptions.) So you should not 
look to divide YHWH into YAH + WH but rather see it as a single form.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: YHWH vs. Yahweh
Author:  gs02wmr AT panther.Gsu.EDU at internet
Date:    27/04/1999 19:42


Shalom Alaikhem,
<snip>