Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Henry Churchyard" <churchh AT crossmyt.com>]

Right, it's not a _mater lectionis_ (vowel letter) in Hebrew (that
would give the reading [zin]).  Whether the letter _yodh_ in this word
represents a single or geminated [y] consonant sound in Hebrew
wouldn't make much difference for the Greek transliteration, because
the ancient Greek alphabet did not have a separate letter for [y]; the
theoretically possible transliteration <Ziion> would not necessarily
have been vastly superior to <Zion>.  Ancient Latin did use the letter
<I> to write the consonant sound [y] somewhat regularly, but the
distinction between <I> and <J> as clearly separate letters only
happened in modern times.  Latin <Ziion> would have become modern
English <Zijon>, I guess, with a "j" sound (phonetically [dzh]) as in
"judge".


>Subject: Re: Zion
>From: Johannes Hellberg <j.hellberg AT forsfak.been.o.se>
>Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2001 17:27:57 +0200

> The consonants aleph, he, yod and vav can be used as 'matres
> lectiones', but in this case it cannot be in that way since the yod
> in Zion is doubled (geminated).  Hence it must be a consonant of
> full value, and not a matres lectionis according to the Masoretes.
> The Septuagint , however, was translated long before the Masoretes,
> and in an unvocalized Zion, yod might have been reckoned as 'matres
> lectionis'

>01-08-08 16:16, skrev Tony Costa p=E5 tmcos AT hotmail.com f=F6ljande:

>> I think this is also an example of the 'matres lectionis' (mother
>> of readings) where the consonants aleph, he, yod and vav are used
>> as voewls.  The yod (or 'yud') I think functions in this case as a
>> vowel and hence is transliterated this way.. Best,

>>> From: Johannes Hellberg <j.hellberg AT forsfak.been.o.se>
>>> Subject: Re: Zion
>>> Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 17:39:03 +0200

>>> Usually the English transliterations of Hebrew names follow the
>>> greek translation, the Septuagint.

>>> 01-08-07 16:28, skrev Silberman, Alfred p=E5
>>> alfred.silberman AT baesystems.com f=F6ljande:

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

--
Henry Churchyard   churchh AT crossmyt.com   http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/