Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

>Why is Zion transliterated with a non-consonantal yud; Zion instead of
>Ziyon?

As no-one has responded, here's a rough guess. Most initial yods are 
transliterated
as a consonant, usually with a "j" as in "Jeremiah" (with exceptions such as 
before
sibilants, "Isaiah", "Ishmael" and "Israel"). The others are normally 
translated
vocalically (with some exceptions of the theophoric element -yh, like Elijah,
Abijah).

At least this is how it appears with the English translations from the time 
of the
AV onwards. The AV set a "standard", which all readers accepted and have used 
from
that time onward, influencing all subsequent translations. How many 
English-speaking
people would now ever accept, say, "Yirmiyahu" instead of "Jeremiah"? Zion has
always been (using phonetic represntation) /zaijon/ and I can't see many ever
attempting /tsijun/.

(It's a bit like the fact that Windows is rather mediocre, but everyone knows 
it and
loves it.)


Ian