Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Donald Vance <donaldrvance AT mac.com>]

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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