Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Pronunciation of WAW

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "George Athas" <gathas AT hotkey.net.au>
  • To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Pronunciation of WAW
  • Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 10:25:54 +1100


| 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)






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page