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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Tetragrammaton
  • Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 05:37:28 +0200


----- Original Message ----- From: "Edward Andrews" <edandrews AT adelphia.net>
In the Hebrew language, “There are, generally speaking, two main
pronunciations: the Ashkenazi, or German, originated by central and Eastern
European Jews and carried to all countries to which those Jews have
emigrated (Western Europe, America, etc.); and the Sephardi, or Spanish,
used by Jews of Spanish or Portuguese stock in Europe and America and also
by Jews from Oriental countries. In all universities and throughout Israel,
the Sephardi pronunciation has been adopted, since it is generally believed
that this is the pronunciation nearest to the original.” (Biblical Hebrew
Step by Step, vol. 1, p 33, by Professor emeritus of Hebrew and Semitic
studies, Menahem Mansoor).


It is a well known fact, that the Ashkenazi Jews had changed the
pronunciation of the jod to that of the “y” sound. However, the Sephardic
Jews have kept the original pronunciation of the jod as “j.”


Dear Edward,

This is nonsense. There is no difference between the Askenazi and Sephardi pronounciation of the letter Yod. Besides which, neither Ashkenazim or Sephardim actually vocalize the Tetragrammaton. The reason that northern European languages chose to spell Jehovah with a J instead of Y is because, as you explain, in the middle ages J was pronounced in Latin (which was the language of scholarship) as English now pronounces Y (and as German does to this day), and later, most of the scholars who wrote in the venacular wrote in German. This is also why we have Jerusalem and Jesus instead of Yerushalaim and Iesus. More modern scholars have dropped this convention for the Tetragrammaton and gone to writing Yahweh, YHWH etc. The vowels used for "Jehovah" are, as someone here has stated, the vaowels of "Adonai", which is what the Masoretes added to the Tetragrammaton to signal that it should be pronounced "Adonai". There are some places, BTW, where the vowels in the MT are those of "Elohim", and the Tetragrammaton is traditionally pronounced as such.

Yigal Levin




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