Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Dear Dave,

We do not know exactly the timbre of the vowels in the days of the 
first and second temple. Nor do we know their length. When I said 
that shewa probably was pronounced as an "a"-sound by the Masoretes, 
this was not meant as a definite  phonetic description. But it was 
meant to show that today we know very little about the vowel sounds. 
Moreover, an "a"-sound in Norwegian is different from an "a"-sound in 
English. We believe that shewa was a very short vowel, and in some 
words where there is a vocal shewa, it is not pronounced, or 
pronounced so quickly that it is difficult to distinguish the sound. 
For example, the numeral two is not in modern Hebrew pronounced as 
SHETAYIM but as SHTAYIM, although the shin has a vocal shewa.

Regarding the name Yehonatan, we simply do not know how it was pronounced.


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo



> On Mon Mar 8 06:58:10 EST 2010
> I wrote to Rolf Furuli, and asked him:
> > > >
> Hi Rolf,
>
> You wrote:
>
> > > >
> For example, there is evidence that the vowel shewa used by the Masoretes
> was pronounced as an "a"-sound and not an "e"-sound.
> > > >
>
> I then asked Rolf:
> "Rolf,
>
> If what you write above is true, wouldn't that indicate that Jerusalem
> would have been pronounced Yarusalem (at one time)?"
> _________________________________________________________________________
>
> Yitzhak Sapir ended up answering my question
> he wrote;
> "[yaru:$@laim] is the Masoretic pronunciation."
>
> So I have a new question for either Rolf or Yitzhak.
> If the word I normally pronounce "Jerusalem.
> is actually pronounced  "[yaru:$@laim]"
> Is it possible that the word that I normally pronounce "Yehonathan"
> is actually pronounced "Yahonathan"
> OR TO USE DIFFERENT WORDS,
> Is the simple shewa under the Yod in Yehonathan
> actually pronounced with an "a" SOUND?,
> just as the simple shewa under the Yod in the word that I pronounce
> "Yerusalem",
> is actually pronounced like the "a" in "[yaru:$@laim]"
>
> I assume that it might be easier to derive Yehonathan
> from the "questioned proposed punctuation" "Yahweh",
> if the simple shewa under the "Yod" in Yehonathan actually has an "a"
> sound.
>
> Dave Donnelly
> ____________________________________________________________
> Diet Help
> Cheap Diet Help Tips. Click here.
> http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=pWwNKeuzRD-Uj7YnLP-zLAAAJ1BVGyITH_OGb159rldJgo3SAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYQAAAAAA=
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew