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b-hebrew - Re: Fw: [b-hebrew] Biblical Pronunciation of Waw and Ayin

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: Fw: [b-hebrew] Biblical Pronunciation of Waw and Ayin
  • Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 12:11:34 +0100

On 12/08/2004 10:01, Yigal Levin wrote:

...

However, since Greek did not have a "V" sound (it does now - Beta in modern
Greek is pronounced Veta), it transliterated most consonantal Vav's with an
Upsilon. ...


Are you sure? I would expect omicron-upsilon rather than just upsilon, because this combination was generally used for the W sound, e.g. in the Greek word OUAI "woe". There are not many proper names with consonantal Vav to test this hypothesis with.

Numbers 13:14: Vophsi > IABI
Numbers 21:14: Waheb > ZWOB !!
Ezra 10:36: Vaniah > OUIECWA (2 Esdras 10:36)
Esther 1:9: Vashti > ASTIN
Esther 9:9: Vaizatha > ZABOUQAIA !!

And then there is the controversial YHWH > IAOUE, according to Clement of Alexandria, in which "OU" are clearly intended to go together to represent the W sound.

I can only conclude that the Greek translators had no idea what to do with consonantal Vav, or perhaps that most of these names beginning with Vav result from textual errors - perhaps a couple of them with Zayin misread as Vav.


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






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