Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com>]

On 12/08/2003 02:41, Trevor & Julie Peterson wrote:

> ... I'm not saying that there isn't evidence for a medial shift from W to Y
> in Hebrew, but I don't think this argument works.
For some better evidence, consider the known correspondence Hebrew HYH ~ 
Aramaic (and perhaps occasional Hebrew) HW'/HWH ~ Arabic HWY. Also 
Hebrew XYH ~ Phoenician XW' and the name XAWWAH "Eve" which is explained 
as linked with XYH. And then there are many "hollow" roots where medial 
Y and W interchange.

>  
>
> > Yahweh would then be a Qal imperfect form.  The Qal normally 
> > takes an /I/ vowel under the preformative YOD, but the /A/ 
> > vowel is influenced by the gutteral HE that tends to prefer 
> > /A/ vowels over the /I/ vowel of the paradygm for Qal 
> > imperfects and caused the /I/ to gravitate to that /A/ vowel. 
> > Thus the /A/ vowel has nothing to do with the hiphil form, 
> > even though it would be a homonym of a hypothetical hiphil 
> > form, but has to do with the gutteral in the root.
> >    
>
> But the regular Qal prefixal forms from HYH show an i-vowel. Even Qal
> forms from the root XYH, with a stronger gutteral xet, show an i-vowel.
>  
This implies the pronunciation of the Masoretes or at the earliest of 
the Hebrew Bible authors. The pronunciation YAHWEH may have become 
frozen long before that. In Arabic the first vowel of the imperfect is 
A, and this was probably true in earlier stages of Hebrew as well. If I 
remember rightly, there was a regular and quite late sound shift by 
which short A in the first syllable shifted to I.


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/