Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

> HH: Thanks for posting this list of Hebrew names, LXX transliterations, 
> and their respective  pronunciations in our alphabet. What it suggests to 
> me is that the Greek names did not use a consistent transliteration system 
> (i.e., use of K and C), and some of the transliterations are contrary to 
> the evidence of the Hebrew letters (i.e., DAMASKOS, CALANNI, IOQOR).

Of course, the translators were consistent. It would be odd for them to be 
inconsistent.
But the consistency accounts for certain changes. Greek accents the names 
differently from Hebrew. That phenomenon is common enough, e.g., Russiav 
ivAn vs. English Ivan. Next, consonants in accented syllables lose much of 
their aspiration (accented vowel pulls the aspiration). And, on the other 
hand, consonants in non-accented syllables are relatively more aspirated. 
When the syllables in Hebrew names lost stress when pronounced according to 
Greek stressing convention, their consonants became more aspirated. This 
explains k-kh change.
Gemination is, of course, simply post-tonic (Calanni - stress shift and the 
resulting gemination).

Vadim Cherny