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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] Addition of /h/ sound
  • Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 08:09:05 +0200

Dear Anita,

There is absolutly no evidence that the ancient Hebrews attached any significance to the letter Het. Het is pronounced deep in the throat - think of Hanukkah or Hutzpah.
I have a feeling that the letter you really mean is He, which is the letter "added" to the names Abra(ha)m and Sara(h). The letter He has quite a few functions in Hebrew, including indicating the participle ("yeled" - child; "ha-yeled" - the child), direction (Lachishah - to Lachish), a question and the feminine form of a noun. It is also used as a matres lectionis, to indicate the vowels a and sometime o, usually at the end of a word. Most of these functions are reflected in other Semitic languages and are not specific to Hebrew.

There are also two He's in the Tetragrammaton, the four-letter name of Israel's God, YHWH. As such, it appears in many Yahwistic theophoric names, in the forms YaH, YeHoW or YaHu. For example, Yehoram (Joram), Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah) etc.

Since late antiquity, Jews have avioded spelling out the Tetragrammaton in "secular" texts, in order to avoid profaning it. Some time in the Middle Ages, the letter He was addopted as one of several replacement forms - as an acronym for "Hashem", "The Name" - which is also how Orthodox Jews vocalize the Tetragrammaton when not praying or reading the Torah in a liturgical setting. With time, people began to view He as a part of God's name, and began avoiding writing just He as well, replacing it with the graphically similar Qoph of Dalet. This is a fairly modern development.

In short, before spending too much time and effort on this, check your sources and learn Hebrew.

Yigal Levin


----- Original Message ----- From: <Anitajg5 AT aol.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 3:47 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Addition of /h/ sound


Hello,
I'm doing research on the sound of the letter H in several languages, and
I'd like to know if you can shed light on the mystical power that ancient
Hebrews ascribed to the letter Het, especially when said aloud.
Since the /h/ is produced purely with the aspirated breath, and breath was
often equated with "spirit," I'm wondering if this would have had something
to do with Abram's name being changed to Abraham, and Sarai's name
being changed to Sarah.
Thank you.
Anita

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