Re: Jewish names

At 13:13 01.8.2000 -0400, Vasiliy Chernov wrote:
> >
> >Yonah is spelled with a hholam-malei (carrier "vav" with a hholam /o/ dot
> >on top).
> >Yoseif is also spelled with a hholam-malei.
> >Avshalom as well.
>
>Very interesting!
>
>That is, hholam-malei (AFAIK mostly representing earlier diphthongs
>in -w, contracted by the Mazora times) becomes <o:>, while single
>hholam (mostly from Semitic [a:]) is rendered as <o:y">...
>
>If Coptic is an evidence of <y> > [@] in Egyptian Greek, the above
>could mean that the vowel corresponding to Mazoretic simple hholam
>was pronounced as some diphthongal [o@] in the Septuagint epoch.
>
>A little bit untraditional... ;)
But very interesting!  As far as Koine' pronunciation itself is concerned
short upsilon may have been [ø] (i.e. front mid rounded) in some places --
i.e. was lowered --, which of course could be identified with [@]!

(I'm CC-ing this to Ray, who surely will have something to say! :-)

/BP 8^)>
--
  B.Philip Jonsson mailto:bpX@netg.se mailto:melrochX@mail.com (delete X)
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