Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT hotkey.net.au>]

| Please keep in mind that no one knows how to pronounce that name, and no one
| was allowed to pronounce that name except for one person, in one place, once
| a year.
|
| Shoshanna

OK -- but this discussion has now shifted to talking about the consonant waw. 
As Ian pointed out,
it was originally a "w" sound, and that is born out in ancient 
transliterations from Akkadian and
Greek. It is only in modern times that the sixth letter of the Hebrew 
alphabet gained the "v"
sound. This shift is consistent with Ashkenazi pronunciation, which was under 
continental European
influence in which the "w" consonant is pronounced as a "v" (cf. Wien = 
"vee-en" = "Vienna").
Ashkenazi pronunciation has prevailed upon modern Hebrew, though most 
non-Ashkenazi speakers have
retained the "w" sound.

Thus, although the we may not know exactly how to pronounce the 
tetragrammaton, we know what sound
the consonants made. It's more the case that we do not really know the vowels 
that were associated
with the name -- hence the ambiguity.

BTW -- I always encourage my students to pronounce waw as "w" because it is 
more authentic and
easier for learning vocab and avoiding confusion with veth (ie, beth without 
dagesh). I also
encourage them to pronounce `ayin, and to try to distinguish between kaph & 
qoph, samekh & sin, tet
& taw.


Best regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
(Sydney, Australia)