From: Garth Grenache <garthgrenache AT hotmail.com>
To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [b-hebrew] Yerushalayim, you say? Really?
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2010 01:04:23 +1000
Dear Yitzhak and all,
Why is it that the Tiberian points indicate that YRWShLM should be pronounced
Yerushalayim?
Where is the Y in -La(y)iM?
When a mater is not included we say the spelling is 'defective'.
But a consonantal 'y' is not a mater, is it?
So as the city name is spelled YRWShLM mostly, and only rarely in the later
works, YRWShLYM, I suggest that the Y is an added mater for long 'e' (found
in Gk LXX/NT and Aramaic spellings), which in Tiberian Hebrew became
interpreted as consonantal, and perhaps as part of a dual ending?
What do you think, and what evidence do you have?
How do the non-Tiberian pointing traditions (e.g. Babylonian, Palestinian)
point this important name?