Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Pere Casanellas <pere.casanellas AT btlink.net>]

You can read:
Alexander SPERBER, "Hebrew based upon Greek and Latin
transliterations", Hebrew Union College Annual, 12-13
(1937-1938), pp. 103-274.

Sperber explains that in the earlier period heth equals the Greek letter
chi (see the transcription of some names in the codex A of Septuagint)
but that in the later period (Jerome) heth lost its consonantal value and
like aleph served merely for carrying the vowel (notwithstanding that
Jerome explains that the heth was pronounced with a double aspiration).
He also says. "We may assume that the transition from the earlier to
the later period is marked by those transliterations, where heth is
rendered by epsilon" (p. 110-111, 130).

Best regards,

--
Pere Casanellas
A/e: pere.casanellas AT btlink.net
     pcasanel AT pie.xtec.es
Barcelona (Catalonia)

At 17:03 08/07/2002 +0200, Ian Hutchesson wrote:
> >Whilst I understand the
> relation in the Hebrew name
> >for 'Eve'  (Gen 3:20) to 'life', I'm unsure where we
> >get the English 'Eve' from.
> >
> >I'm guessing that it is a transliteration of the LXX
> >for 'Chavvah/Khavvah' = 'Eve'. Can anyone confirm this
> >and give more detail, or correct me if I'm barking up
> >the wrong tree? I haven't got an LXX to look it up in,
> >so I've no idea if I'm on the right track.
>
> Your guess is correct, though in Gen 3:20 the Greek has 
> Zoe to preserve the story about the name meaning "life". 
> Gen 4:1 has Eua(n) (L. Hava(m)). 
>
> Names that have come to us through Greek seem to have 
> lost the khet, Onias, Enoch, Ananias, Anna. These have 
> stuck.
>
> Though not regular, there has been an intermittently 
> systematic phonetic "misperception" from Hebrew into 
> Greek (here as found in English):
>
> khet  --> (lost)        
> xnwk  --> Enoch
>
> kaf   -->
> chi           
> kbr   --> Chebar
>                         
> kmw$  --> Chemosh
>                   
> (Akk. kaldu --> Chaldean)
>
> qof   -->
> kappa         
> qrh   --> Korah
>                         
> qd$   --> Kadesh
>
> This last is understandable, as Greek had no equivalent. 
> (That's what happens in English.) The other two changes 
> intrigue me. I would have thought that the Greek 
> equivalent sound of khet was chi and of kaf was kappa. 
> Perhaps the pronunciation of the Hebrew was different 
> from what we understand it. 
>
> It is in the change from one language (or phonetic 
> system) to another that we learn things about 
> pronunciation. We learn from the transliteration of 
> Caesar in Hieroglyphic (and others) that the initial C 
> was pronounced /k/ and not /s/ as we get from the 
> French, or /t$/ as the Italians insist.
>
>
> Ian