Re: Pater Noster (purely linguistically)
| From: | Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, December 4, 2004, 20:16 |
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On Dec 2, 2004, at 10:26 PM, Henrik Theiling wrote:
>>> _Amen_, which means 'let it be so' but is usually untranslated.
>> Well, yes - the word is Hebrew, and it is left untranslated in Greek!
> I don't have initial vowels nor [m] or [E]/[e]. What was the precise
> pronunciation (if known) in Hebrew? Assuming /amEn/ or something
> similar, the closest would be /haN@n@/ in Qthen|gai. Weird.
In the time of the Masoretes, who invented vowel diacritics for Hebrew
texts, "amen" seems to have been pronounced something like [O'men] -
one or both of the vowels might be long, though. This was around the
800's CE.
It may well have been pronounced something like [a'men] back around the
non-year 0, though :) .
-Stephen (Steg)
"verbing weirds language"
~ calvin (& hobbes)
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