Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 27/09/2005 04:39, Read, James C wrote:

> ...
>
> However, try as I might I just cannot humanly pronounce this word with such syllabic separations without 
> inserting a vocal schwa between the two syllables:
>
> Ya (cv) H: (cv) WeH (cv(c))
>
> Maybe this is just a limitation of my personal pronuniciation capabilities but the form Yahweh as a bisyllabic word 
> would seem to break the rules of the consonant/vowel structure of b-hebrew words.
>  

I think this is because of your limitations as an English speaker, 
because in English the sound [h] is never used at the end of a syllable. 
However, for speakers of some other languages e.g. Arabic which use 
syllable final [h], and for those trained in phonetics like myself, this 
syllable final [h] is not a problem at all. And it doesn't seem to have 
been a problem for Hebrew speakers at one time - but it may have become 
one later, for there is a tendency in later editions of the Hebrew Bible 
to replace silent sheva under he and under other "guttural" consonants 
with a non-silent "composite sheva". But this is certainly not an 
argument that there was originally a vowel in the middle of the divine name.

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