The Hebrew language has authentically those two sounds in the 1800s, some Jews “v,” some Jews “w”. Originally, there was just a v.” That has nothing to do with Hebrew. I’ll get people here, a guy writes to me and he says, “But the ‘w’ only came later. And some pronounced it as a “wuh,” like a “w” in English. Some Jews pronounced the letter as “vuh” as a “v” in English. When they got to the sixth letter of the alphabet, they found two different pronunciation traditions. It didn’t matter if you were a Jew from Lithuania or a Jew from Yemen, or a Jew from the mountains of Kurdistan. They documented how they pronounced every letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Bet, Gimmel, Daled, Hei. This is at the time when there were Jews living all over the world without communication with each other. What happened is that scholars went around the Jewish world in the 1800s. How do we know how to pronounce anything in Hebrew? How do I know the Hebrew letter “ Mem” is really “m?” Maybe the Hebrew letter Mem is really “k” or “d.” How do I know? There were Jews who spoke a Germanic language, Yiddish, and you could argue that they were influenced by the German language to lose the “v” sound in the Hebrew. But it’s mixed in 85 percent German, about 10 percent Hebrew, and 5 percent from other languages, Slavic and things like that. I’m told it’s closer to Dutch than it is to German. Like my grandmother, who was born in Eastern Europe, she spoke Yiddish as her mother tongue, and Yiddish actually means Jewish – Yid is a Jew in German. Now, where do they get that idea? It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds at first, because many Jews coming from Europe spoke a language called Yiddish. Here’s what the argument is that somehow the pronunciation of the sound “v” comes from German. I am admittedly no Hebrew scholar…” I’ll bet, “but for years I have been under the impression that the “wow” is pronounced with a hard ‘v’ because of influences from German translators, and that the “w” is pronounced as a German “w” which is a “v.” He says, “I’m slightly puzzled with the pronunciation of “wow”. Nehemia: Right, they don’t even bother with that. Michael: They start off, “With all due respect,” and then they insult you. How can you be so stupid? Don’t you know there’s no ‘v’ sound in the Hebrew language?” The ones who are maybe a little bit more respectful here, they’ll say, “This guy says…” Usually, what they’ll say is, “I thought you knew Hebrew. Nehemia: This is very typical of the type of questions I’ll get on this. Nehemia: One of the questions is, they say, “Okay, in the vowels that you have in the Hebrew Bible, the name is “Yehovah”, but that Hebrew letter “ Vav” isn’t a “v” it’s a “w.” I get this question about once a week from people. More than 6,828 times in the Bible, Yud-Hei-Vav-Hei appears, and, Nehemia Gordon, we have a number of questions that have come up on this. Michael: So much has come into question about the pronunciation of the Name. Thank you for supporting Nehemia’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Nehemia: There’s no question whatsoever that 1,500 years ago in the land of Israel, the Jews pronounced that sound as a “v.”Īnnouncer: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot.Īnnouncer: You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Hebrew Voices #66 - The Historical Pronunciation of Vav
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