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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: "Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] YHWH pronunciation
  • Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 18:03:11 +0100

On 10/08/2005 13:02, Read, James C wrote:

Thank you very much for this post. I think this puts a firm end to the Yahwah
theory.
It is perfectly clear that the first two syllables are Yeho/Yahu. The only question that remains is the vowel in the final syllable.
If yhwh is a 3m.s. YiQToL then both Qal and Hiphil take segol as the final
vowel.

A final 'a'vowel would support the 'He was ,he is, he will be' theory presented in the article provided earlier from the catholic encyclopedia.


I have just noticed a new piece of data concerning the pronunciation of YHWH. I have realised that the word YHWH appears to have a construct state, in the compound form YHWH C:BA'OT "Lord of hosts". But this compound form is consonantally identical to the absolute state (and also vocalised the same). If YHWH was simply the spelling of a noun form ending in -AH (with qamets), like Y:HOWAH, the construct state would end in -AT (with patah) and so be consonantally YHWT. But this form is never found. This is perhaps an argument against the form Y:HOWAH. However, nouns ending in -EH (with segol) derived from lamed-he verbs are consonantally unchanged in the construct (but the segol changes to tsere). See GKC 89e,f. This suggests that a form like YAHWEH is more likely.

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





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