Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT ausisp.com>]

Dear kyms(?)

There is overwhelming evidence that WAW was originally a "w" sound.

Firstly, there is the issue of diphthongs which contracted to holem vowels. 
For example,
most Yahwistic theophoric names from ancient Israel begin with the element YW 
-- an
apocopated form YHWH. It is clear from the transliteration of these names 
into other
languages (such as Akkadian and Greek) that this element was pronounced "yow" 
-- not
"yov". This is merely one small example of which there are numerous other 
examples. The
"v" sound was occupied by the voiced letter BETH (or "VETH"). If these names 
had actually
employed a "v" sound so that they were pronounced "yov", then we might expect 
them to have
been transliterated with a "b" such as "yob" in other languages. This, 
however, does not
happen. Instead, the transliterations demonstrate that people in antiquity 
were
pronouncing these elements as "yow". Hence, when this "ow" diphthong 
contracted, the "w"
sound naturally shifted to an "o" sound. That is why these diphthongs are, in 
Masoretic
Hebrew, represented simply by a holem vowel - "yo".

Secondly, almost all 3-letter roots which originally began with WAW (ie, 
I-waw or Pe-waw
roots) shifted to a YODH. This interchange between WAW and YODH is 
demonstrated by the
word for wine, YaYiN, which was originally WaYiN. It's from this word that we 
get the
Greek word for wine -- OINOS, and even our English word "wine". This 
transliteration would
not make sense if WAW were pronounced as "v", for then we might expect the 
word to have
been BOINOS or even MOINOS in Greek. Another example includes the root WRD - 
"to descend"
from which we get the name YaRDeN ("Jordan"), which in Arabic happens to be 
URDUNN,
beginning with a waw.

Thirdly, the "v" sound of WAW in modern Hebrew has come down from Ashkenazi 
pronunciation
of Hebrew which was heavily influenced by continental Europe. In Europe, the 
continental
"w" is pronounced as a "V" -- hence the city of Vienna is written in German 
as "Wien".
Continental Europe had such an inluence over Ahskenazi pronunciation that 
today, there are
hardly any gutturals in modern Hebrew. Certainly Israelis no longer pronounce 
the guttural
`AYIN. However, Sephardic Jews still retain most of the ancient pronunciation 
of Hebrew.
Among these groups, the letter WAW is still pronounced as a "w" sound.

You might want to consult some references on the development of Hebrew 
pronunciation. You
will find them unanimous about WAW being originally pronounced as "w". You 
would be on a
very lonely limb clinging to the "v" sound as original. Since we don't have 
any recordings
of ancient pronuncation, we can never be 100% sure, so you might be right. 
However, those
who have examined the language and its development are 99% sure that WAW was 
a "w" sound.

Please consult some references. I suggest works by I.M. Young, G. Rendsburg 
and W.R. Garr
for starters.

Best regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
(Sydney, Australia)
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