Biblical Hebrew Forum

["JAMES CHRISTIAN READ" <JCR128 AT student.apu.ac.uk>]

Yigal wrote:
Dear Gene,

The usual form in prefixes is Yo or Yeho, of which there are many examples: 
Yehoshua (Joshua), Yehonatan (Jonathan), Yehoram/Yoram (Joram) and so on.

Yigal Levin
END QUOTE

I think the schewa in Yeho prefixes can only best be 
attributed to vowel reduction when the syllable is far 
removed from the stressed syllable. This combined with 
the standalone Yah and the suffixed Yahu seems to 
conclusively prove and original 'a' in the first 
syllable. However, in a trisyllabic version of the name the first syllable 
would have been two syllables back 
from the stressed syllable and therefore a vowel 
reduced first syllable would be phonetically plausible.
In this case the mono-, bi- and tri-syllabic forms 
would be:

Yah
Yahuw
Yehow?h (most probably Yehowah or possibly Yehoweh)

James C. Read
UK

















































aI think the schewa in Yeho prefixes can only best be 
attributed to vowel reduction when the syllable is far
removed from the stressed syllable. This combined with
the standalone Yah and the suffixed Yahu seems to
conclusively prove and original 'a' in the first
syllable. However, in a trisyllabic version of the name the first syllable 
would have been two syllables back
from the stressed syllable and therefore a vowel
reduced first syllable would be phonetically plausible.
In this case the mono-, bi- and tri-syllabic forms
would be:

Yah
Yahuw
Yehow?h (most probably Yehowah or possibly Yehoweh)

James C. Read
UK