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  • From: peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re[3]: YHWH vs. Yahweh
  • Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 12:37:29 -0400


Dear Rolf,

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

I realise that we are talking speculatively here. Someone suggested
that the form Yahweh could be explained as the hiphil of the root HWH.
My point was to extend this suggestion to show that -yahu could also
come from the hiphil of HWH, and need not imply a U or O vowel in the
original pronunciation of YHWH.

Well, if we don't know the pronunciation of YHWH, we might as well say
we don't know the pronunciation of Hebrew at all. As you recently
pointed out in connection with wayyiqtol, one of our earliest sources
(a problematic one) for the general pronunciation of Hebrew is Origen;
but Origen's teacher Clement of Alexandria already gave us the form
IAOUE for the pronunciation of YHWH - in which I and OU probably
represent the semivowels Y and W not found in Greek. So the
pronunciation "Yahweh" is not late and artificial but a scholarly
reconstruction from evidence such as Clement's, and Theodoret's IABE.
But I accept that we cannot be sure that Clement was not trying to
reproduce something like YAHUWE.

As for the Hebrew and Aramaic roots, well, the root HWH is attested
rarely in Hebrew (see BDB) as a synonym for HYH and was probably the
original form as in Aramaic and Arabic (HWY). There seems to have been
a general tendency in Hebrew for original Semitic W root consonants to
assimilate to Y in most but not all forms. Analogous roots to HWH have
survived in Hebrew in CWH "command", QWH "wait" and RWH "drink", see
GKC 72gg. Of these only RWH has hiphil forms, and then only the
perfect HIR:WFH (also some suffixed forms) and the participle MAR:WEH,
but these forms are enough to confirm that the hiphil of HWH would
probably have been YAH:WEH . (By contrast, XYH "live" has an original
Y middle consonant as in Arabic, and so its hiphil perfect is
HEX:EYFH, infinitive absolute HAX:AY"H, again unfortunately no
imperfect but presumably it would have been YAX:AYEH.)

So I would suggest that we do know the root, the early Hebrew HWH
which later assimilated to HYH - or is there any other possibility? We
do more or less know the language, archaic Hebrew or perhaps dating
back to common west Semitic. Within that language, or at least the
rather later form still extant, we have good evidence that there could
have been a 2-syllable pronunciation of YHWH.

Is there evidence for a 3-syllable pronunciation of such words?
Limited, I think. The analogies might be feminine nouns from roots
with final W . Extant forms include $AL:WFH, GA):AWFH, XED:WFH,
(ER:WFH (GKC 84a c epsilon). But I cannot find any four letter forms
ending in -WH with 3-syllable pronunciation - do you know of any?

Peter Kirk



______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re[2]: YHWH vs. Yahweh
Author: furuli AT online.no at internet
Date: 29/04/1999 10:21


Peter Kirk wrote:

<snipped>

Dear Peter,

It was not my intention to enter this discussion, but what you wrote above
needs some comment.

As a matter of fact, we *know* next to nothing about the old pronunciation
and meaning of YHWH. It has correctly been stated in this thread that
"Jehovah" is an artificial construction based on the masoretic punctuation,
and that "Yahweh" is late and artificial as well. This does not rule out,
however, that king David, pronounced the name, either close to "Jehovah" or
to "Yahweh". The many names in the Bible beginning with "Jeho/u opt for
something closer to "Jehovah", and the abbreviation "yah" and a similar
ending in many names opt for something closer to "Yahweh". The Elephantine
papyri are open for either YEHU/O or YAHU/O. But the correct pronunciation
we do not know!

I am surprised, however, that nobody has brought Aramaic into the
discussion (or at least an older dialect of Hebrew), because HYH is Hebrew
while HWH is Aramaic. A hiphil form of the Hebrew HYH is not attested, but
if one existed, would it not be YA:HAYE or YAHYE (compare )EHYE in Ex 3:14)
rather than YA:HAWE or YAHWE? In Daniel 5:12 we find a haphel form of HWH
written as YE:HAHA:WE, and an aphel form could have been YAHWE. Jussiv in
Aramaic is expressed by elision of the final N and is, except that, similar
to imperfect. I therefore find your suggestions above about a Hebrew
jussive meaning speculative.

The number of syllables and whether waw is a consonant or a vowel may be
discussed, but as long as we do not know the language/dialect, and the
particular root and its meaning we are groping in the dark.



Regards
Rolf

Rolf Furuli
Lecturer in Semitic languages
University of Oslo









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