Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 13/02/2004 05:37, Trevor Peterson wrote:

> > ===== Original Message From "Sesamo m." <sesamox AT hotmail.com> =====
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I studied a little Hebrew at University and I remember the teacher telling
> > us that the Hebrew name for Mary was pronounced "Maryam" in biblical times
> > (both for Moses' sister and Jesus' mother) and "Miryam" in later Hebrew.
> > Also Samuel was pronounced "Samuel" in those times and "Semuel" in later
> > Hebrew.
> >    
>
> Actually, the first consonant would be a shin, pronounced /sh/. Greek lacks 
> this sound, so it came across as s.
>
>  
>
> > I admit I'm not sure to remember this accurately. I'd like to ask you if
> > this is so, and also which other examples of important characters from the
> > Bible you could mention.
> >    
>
> The issue here, particularly in the case of Samuel, is one of vowel reduction. 
> It is generally thought that vowel reduction was a developed feature, so that 
> older forms of words with reduced vowels (in this case, a simple shva) would 
> originally have had full vowels. To a certain extent, we have to infer this 
> based on the theory of language change. I imagine evidence can also be drawn 
> from transcriptions of names in other languages, primarily Greek and Aramaic. 
> In particular, the form Maryam comes across into Aramaic and seems to underlie 
> the Greek Maria (with i probably standing for a consonantal /y/). I know this 
> doesn't get into other names, as you asked, but I thought it might help to 
> understand where this type of argument comes from.
>
> Trevor Peterson
> CUA/Semitics
>
>
>  
There are very many names which appear in the Hebrew Bible with reduced 
first vowels but in the Septuagint in longer forms. Other examples are 
Samson (Hebrew: Shimshon), Solomon (Hebrew: Sh'lomo) and Sodom (Hebrew: 
S'dom). The longer forms are also sometimes preserved in other languages 
e.g. Maryam in Arabic as well as Aramaic. This is evidence for a general 
shift in the pronunciation of Hebrew, reduction of vowels in first 
syllables in certain environments, sometime probably between the time of 
the LXX translation and the time of the Masoretes. There is probably 
other evidence e.g. Origen's Hexapla transliterated Hebrew which can 
pinpoint the time of the change more precisely.

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