Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

>> In the Galilee, Aramaic was pronounced differently and Galileans dropped
>> their alefs and ayins like Cockney English drop their H's. Jesus' Galilean
>> friends would have called him Yeshu.  In Judea and formally, his name was
>> Yeshua, yehSHOO-ah (kind of a gulp), and in the Galilee his name was
>> pronounced Yeshu, pronounced YEHshoo.  Because of strong Hellenistic
>> influence in Palestine at the time, some Jews with the name of Yeshua used 
>> a
>> Greek transliteration of the name.  Yeshua ben Sirach was one of them who
>> went by the name Ἰησοῦς, pronounced YAYsoos.  Greek had no sound for SH and
>> the masculine ending S was added.
>
> I'm puzzled as to why you think there was an accent on the initial syllable 
> of
> both the Aramaic and Greek forms of the name?  The Greek form clearly has an
> accent on the last syllable, and as far as my (very limited) understanding 
> of
> Aramaic goes, the same would be true of the Aramaic form.  Thinking about 
> this
> a little more, I think the accent on the ultima must have persisted in 
> Vulgar
> Latin, even though such a pronunciation would be at odds with normal Latin
> accentuation rules, otherwise where do the Spanish Jesús and the Italian 
> Gesù
> come from?

Besides the final accent on the final syllable שוע- -shu`, correctly,
the case of no `ayin is exaggerated.

Even in the 7th century the Arabs got the `ayins and Hets correct
in the place names, which meant that quite a few someones were still
pronouncing them correctly.
In addition, there are no epigraphic ישו, only ישוע, except for one ossuary
written to the end of a line and with ישוע on the other side.

Those wanting to practice their pharygeal fricatives (ח,ע) are always welcomed
to the BLC Hebrew ulpans.

braxot
Randall Buth
--
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth AT gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life



-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth AT gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life