Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yodan" <yodan AT yodanco.com>]

Shalom!

 

Has this group discussed the fact that (many? all?) names that have a SHIN
in Hebrew are translated as S and not SH in English? Does anyone know the
reason? 

 

I'm referring to Shaul/Saul, Shmuel/Samuel, Shlomo/Solomon, and
Menasheh/Menasseh. 

 

Here are my thoughts but I don't know which one, if any, of the below is
correct. Would appreciate hearing your thoughts on this.

 

Three possibilities come to mind:

 

1.                   At the time of the Greek or Latin translation, which
preceded the Masoretic nikkud ("punctuation") by centuries, these names were
pronounced in Hebrew with an S and only later this consonant become a SH. So
while Hebrew follows the Masoretic nikkud, translations represent earlier
pronunciation of these names.

 

2.                   Some Jewish communities pronounced these names with SH
(and the Masoretic pronunciation was based on these communities) but some
other communities pronounced them with S, and the Septuaguint or Vulgate
translation is based on such other communities. (Remember the supposed lisp
of the tribe of Ephrayim, which might have not been a lisp but their way for
pronouncing a consonant that others pronounced SH).

 

3.                   At the time of the Greek or Latin translations, these
languages did not have a SH consonant. Not knowing Greek or Latin, I don't
know if this is the case (I'm sure some in this group know!) but it's
possible because, as we know, European languages do not have a letter for SH
- it is always a combination of letters (SH in English, CH in French, and
SCH in German). Even Hebrew doesn't have an unequivocal letter for SH - the
same letter serves for SHIN and SIN, depending on the location of the dot
that wasn't there before the nikkud was invented. 

 

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge/thoughts.

 

Bruryah Yodan

 

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