Re: `Ayin as [N], was New to the List, too

A few words on Judah Monis' unique Hebrew pinyin:

 Judah Monis writes in his grammar "I have in the first Chapter throughout, and
in sundry other Places, turned the Pronunciation of the Hebrew Words in English
Letters, as near as the difference of the Tongues would permit, with a design
to lead (as it were) young Beginners into the way of Pronouncing this Tongue by
their own Industry: I am very sensible that the way of my pronouncing it will
seem to be somewhat new; yet, I am prone to think, it is the Right and Genuine
way, for, besides that all the Jewish Nation in all their Dispersions do
pronounce it as I do (which to me is not of small weight), I found in all my
Travels, all the Learned in this Tongue that I conversed with, among the
Europeans (English excepted) do pronounce it the same way also; and why the
English differ from the rest, proceeds only (as I take it) from the various
ways they have of pronouncing the Vowels, in which the other nations are more
conformed one to another, as it is well known to all o!
bserving Travellers and Linguists; and therefore in Conformity to the English
Pronunciation ONLY, I have Spelt the Words in English Characters as I have
done."

This is taken from the Dickdook leshon gnebreet, 1735 (which, in a more standard
orthography, would be written diqdûq l'šôn 'ibhrîth or something similar).
On the first page, he gives a list of the Hebrew alphabet and the
correspondences:

Auleph [A], Beth [B], Gimmell [G], Dauleth [D], Ha [A or H], Vaugh [V or W], Zauine
[Z], Heth [X or Ch], Teth [T], Yode [Y or J], Caugh [C or Q], Caugh F [Ch],
Laummedd [L], Mem [M], Mem F [M], Noon [N], Noon F [N], Ssaumech [SS], Gnauine
or Ngauine [Gn or Ng], Pa [P or Ph], Pa F [Ph], Tsadde [Ts], Tsadde F [Ts],
Kuph [K], Resh [R], Shin or Sin [Sh or S], Taugh or Ttaugh [T or Tt].

The F's stand for the final forms of the letters. I think that it's fairly clear
that he intends to pronounce Gnauine as [N], although I have NO idea why he
doubles some letters (cf. Laummedd or Ssaumech). I think that the au represents
the "open o" that you find in Ashkenazic pronunciations of Hebrew as well as
the New York pronunciation of words like "coffee" and "chocolate." Any ideas?

 Interesting story about Judah Monis: while he was certainly one of the most
intelligent people in the Colonies (he was educated in Amsterdam and at the
ancient Rabbinical School in Leghorn), he was unable to teach Hebrew because of
his religion. The Hancock family stipulated that he "reform his faith" in order
to occupy the chair, which they had endowed. So, Judah converted to
Christianity and was baptised. As a show of his newfound faith, he begins the
preface to his Dickdook:

"SINCE through the good Hand of GOD upon me, he has ... taken Moses's Vail from me..."

 Since the time of Monis, all of the people who have been appointed Hancock
Professor of Hebrew have come from various Christian denominations. Recently,
when the Hancock Professor retired, the department decided to offer the
position to Dr. Peter Machinist of the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), who
was certainly the most qualified for the job. Dr. Machinist also happens to be
Jewish. While, IMO, it is unlikely that the Hancocks would protest if he
occupied their chair, the department was very concerned about the ramifications
of violating the Hancock's wishes, and they certainly would not consider
fulfilling them by denying Dr. Machinist the position.

 As it turns out, Dr. Machinist belongs to the Reform Congregation of American
Jewry, so the letter of the law was preserved and disaster was averted.

-Chollie



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