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  • From: Donald Vance <donaldrvance AT mac.com>
  • To: davedonnelly1 <davedonnelly1 AT juno.com>
  • Cc: "b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] How to pronounce the English word Yahweh
  • Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:22:12 -0600

Yods take simple schwas, gutturals take compound schwas when the schwas are vocal. As a rule, Hebrew phonetics call for propretonic reduction of the vowel, that is, when the vowel is two places or more from the accent, the vowel will go to schwa unless the syllable is closed or the vowel is unchangeably long (either historically a long vowel or compensatorily lengthened).

Sent from my iPhone

Donald R. Vance
donaldrvance AT mac.com

On Feb 24, 2010, at 7:04 AM, davedonnelly1 <davedonnelly1 AT juno.com> wrote:

Hi George;

You wrote


Actually, the Masoretes DID place the vowels of Adonai on the
Tetragrammaton. The initial vowel is a shewa. In the word Adonai, this
has to be a composite shewa (with patah), but it is still grammatically a
shewa. The holem vowel was usually not written, perhaps for reasons of
piety (nothing above the name of God), though there are a handful of
instances where it is written, seemingly offering the proof that the
Mosoretes were indeed thinking of the vowels of Adonai.

Occasionally, when the actual word Adonai precedes the Tetragrammaton,
the vowels of Elohim were inserted instead.

George,

The initial vowel in both Hebrew word #3068 and in Jerusalem is a simple
shewa
and it is pronounced with some sort of an "e" sound not an "a" sound.

The compound shewa in Adonai has some sort of an "a" sound.

Can't we truly say that the first vowel in Hebrew word #3068 and the
first vowel in Jerusalem have the same sound.
Using the same criteria shouldn't we say that the first vowel in Hebrew
Word #3068 and the first vowel in Adonai are pronounced differently, even
though they are both called shewas.

Of course if the Masoretes had placed a hatef patah under the yod in
Hebrew word #3068,
then the first vowel in both words would not only have sounded the same,
but they actually would have been the same compound shewa.

But the Masoretes chose not to place the precise first vowel of Adonai
under the yod in Hebrew word #3068.

Note that in the Leningrad Codex while the Masoretes placed the vowel
[i.e. hatef-segol] of Elohim under the yod of YHWH only once, however
in the Ben Chayyim Hebrew text of 1525 A.D., the Masorete('s) placed the
vowel [i.e. Hatef-segol] of Elohim under the yod of YHWH 305 times.

It would appear as if there is no problem in placing a compound shewa
under the yod in YHWH,
if the Masoretes had wanted to do same.

Dave Donnelly
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