Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dr. Joel M. Hoffman" <joel AT exc.com>]

>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.

It sounds like you mean the letter Heh, which is like the English "h,"
and which, as a consonant, has the sound /h/.

Chapter 4 of my NYU Book (_In the Beginning: A Short History of the
Hebrew Language_) goes through the ways that the letter Heh was added
to Avram to create Avraham, to Sarai to create Sarah, and to Elim
("gods" or the god "Elim") to crate Elohim.  That is, the patriarch,
matriarch, and deity of the ancient Hebrews all come from otherwise
common ancient words with a Heh added to denote their role in Hebrew
culture.

I posit that the special importance of the letter Heh has to do with
its role as a "vowel letter," that is, a consonant that doubles as a
vowel when necessary.  The other vowel letters of ancient Hebrew, Vav
(W) and Yud (Y), combine with two Heh's to create the tetragrammaton,
Y-H-W-W.

However, I do not believe that the ancient Hebrew ascribed any
"mystical" power in the sense of modern mysticism or of Kabbalah to
the Heh or to any other letter.

-Joel



Joel M. Hoffman, PhD
http://www.lashon.net/JMH/