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Pocket Casts Podcast Addict CastBox edit source]
וֹ The ħolam is the dot above the Vav.
It produces the "o" sound (IPA: /o/, "o" as in "gore"). It can appear as a dot in the top of the space between two letters (xֹx) and then it's called Ħolam Ħaser ("empty ħolam") or on a Vav (וֹ), and then it is called Ħolam Malei ("full ħolam").
In modern Israeli Hebrew there is no distinction between the two save spelling.
Shuruq[edit edit source]
וּ The shuruq is the dot to the left of the Vav.[2]
It produces the "u" sound (IPA: /u/, "u" as in "flu").
When charged by any other vowel Vav is pronounced as a "v".
Connection Vav - Vav Haħibur[edit edit source]
You remember the Definite He? We learned then that while in English the definite article exists as a separate word ("the"), in Hebrew it exists as an affix, namely the letter He. So if bat means "a daughter", habat means "the daughter".
The same is true for the conjunction "and". While, in English, "and" is a separate word, in Hebrew it appears as an affix, a letter that you add to the beginning of any word and functions as a separate word.
For example:
אָבav father
אֵםem mother
אָב וָאֵםav va’em father and mother
Words[edit edit source]
שָׁלוֹםshalom peace (masculine, singular), hello, goodbye
בּוּלbul postal stamp (masculine, singular), bull's-eye, spot on!
שֵׁןshen tooth (feminine, singular)
מַתָּנָהmatanah gift, present (feminine, singular)
מָלוֹןmalon hotel (masculine, singular)
מִלָהmilah word, circumcision (feminine, singular)
אוֹתot letter (alphabet), sign (feminine, singular)
Summary[edit edit source]
In this lesson, you have learned:
- The letters Lamed ל and Vav ו.
- The niqqud symbols Ħolam (ֹ) and Shuruq (ּ).
- The words שָׁלוֹם, בּוּל, שֵׁן, מַתָּנָה, מָלוֹן, מִלָה and אוֹת.
- The conjunction "and" in Hebrew - Vav Haħibur.
Practice what you've learned in the exercises.
Next lesson: Aleph-Bet 5 >>>
Notes[edit
Vav hebrew sound/
Shuruk: The Vav For "U"
is another vowel we can make with 
.
It sounds like "oo" in igloo or the vav hebrew sound in blue.
You could just remember that the DOT is UNDER the top of the Vav, and under starts with U. But has the U sound of "blue", not of "under." So let's imagine you're screwing a blue screw under the , like this:
The blue screw! Got it? Now let's see in action!
טוּטוּ (tutu) - One of those cute frilly things that ballerinas wear, that fit the definition of "skirt" but without all that fabric.
חוּט (chut) - Speaking of fabric, it means thread.
בּוּז (booz) - Contempt
דּוּ-חַי (doo-chai) - Amphibian -- like a frog!
We're on a roll, let's learn another vowel!
This lesson we will learn two letters, each has only one form:
Lamed[edit TuneIn
Pocket Casts Hebrew/Aleph-Bet/4
Aleph-Bet Lesson 4 — ל ו
Welcome to the fourth lesson of the Hebrew alphabet! In this lesson you will learn the two new Hebrew letters - ל and ו, and two new niqqud symbols - ħolam and shuruq.
Letters[edit
Ancient Name: Waw Pictograph: Peg Meanings: Add, Secure, Hook Sound: W, ow, uw
The original pictograph used in the Early Semitic script is a 
, a picture of a tent peg. The tent pegs were made of wood and may have been Y-shaped to prevent the rope from slipping off.
The Modern Hebrew name for this letter is vav, a word meaning "peg" or "hook." This letter is used as a consonant with a "v" sound and as a vowel with a "ow" and "uw" sound. The consonantal and vowel pronunciations of each of the consonant/vowel letters of the Ancient Hebrew language, which include the aleph, hey, vav, and yud, were closely related. For instance, the letter hey is "h" and "eh" and the pronunciations of vav hebrew sound letter yud is "y" and "iy." Following this pattern, it is probable that the original pronunciation of vava vienna letter was "w" as the vowel sounds associated with this letter are "ow" and "uw." In addition, in the Vav hebrew sound Arabic language, this letter is pronounced with a "w." Therefore, the original name of this letter would have been waw instead of vav, as it is in Modern Hebrew.
As the pictograph indicates, this letter represents a peg or hook, which is used for securing something. The meaning of this letter is vav hebrew sound add or secure.
This letter is frequently used as a prefix to words to mean "and" in the sense of adding things together.
The Early Semitic hebrew difference vav and src="https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/hebrew/heb-anc-sm-vav.jpg"> evolved into the 
in the Middle Semitic script. This letter then became the 
in the Late Vav hebrew sound script and evolved into the Modern Hebrew. The Middle Semitic letter was adopted by the Greeks and the Romans to be the letter F, but was dropped from the Greek alphabet and does not exist in the Modern Greek alphabet. The Late Semitic form of the letter became the number 9.
Nehemia's Wall
Hebrew Voices #66 - The Historical Pronunciation of Vav
You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
Nehemia: There’s no question whatsoever that 1,500 years ago in the land of Israel, the Jews pronounced that sound as a “v.”
Announcer: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot.
Announcer: You are listening to Hebrew Voices vav hebrew sound Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at nehemiaswall.com.
Michael: So much has come into question about the pronunciation of the Name. 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. Let’s handle some of the basics on that.
Nehemia: One of the vavo bundle url 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. Can I read one?
Michael: Yes.
Nehemia: This is very typical of the type of questions I’ll get on this. Usually, what they’ll say is, “I thought you knew Hebrew. 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…”
Michael: They start off, “With all due vav hebrew sound and then they insult you. [laughing]
Nehemia: Right, they don’t vav hebrew sound bother with that. He says, “I’m slightly puzzled with the pronunciation of “wow”. I am admittedly no Hebrew scholar…” I’ll bet, “but for years I have been under the vav hebrew sound that the “wow” is pronounced with a hard ‘v’ because of vav hebrew sound from German translators, and that the “w” is pronounced as a German “w” vav hebrew sound is a “v.”
Here’s what the vav hebrew sound is; that somehow the pronunciation of the sound “v” comes from German. Now, where do they get that idea? Vav k factor calculation not as far-fetched as it sounds at first, because many Jews coming from Europe spoke a language called Yiddish. 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. Yiddish is a dialect vav hebrew sound German. I’m told it’s closer to Dutch than it is to German. But it’s mixed in 85 percent German, about 10 percent Hebrew, and 5 percent from other languages, Slavic and things like that.
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. Let’s back up even before that. 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?
What happened is that scholars went around the Jewish world in the 1800s. This is at the time when there were Jews living all over the world without communication with each other. They documented how they pronounced every letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Bet, Gimmel, Daled, Hei. All of those were identical. 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 all pronounced Hebrew the same.
When they got to the sixth letter of the alphabet, they found two different pronunciation traditions. Some Jews pronounced the letter as “vuh” as a “v” in English. But it was a Hebrew letter. And some pronounced it as a “wuh,” like a “w” in English. I say “like a w” but it was not a W. I’ll get people here, vava mac dongle guy writes to me and he says, “But vav hebrew sound ‘w’ only came later. Originally, there was just a v.” That has nothing to do with Hebrew. The Hebrew language has authentically those two sounds in the 1800s, some Jews “v,” vav hebrew sound Jews “w”. In fact, most Jews pronounced it “v,” not just the German-speaking, Yiddish-speaking Jews. But for example, the Jews of Syria who had been there since the time of King David, when they read from the Torah, they pronounce price vav warranty sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet as “v.”
That’s very interesting, because when they speak at home to each other they don’t speak Hebrew. When they were at home in Damascus and Aleppo - before they were driven out of there - vav hebrew sound would speak Arabic. Arabic doesn’t have a “v” sound. It has that letter - the letter Vav exists in Arabic, and it’s pronounced “wow.” In fact, the pronunciation of “wow” comes from Arabic.
I was sitting recently with a member of the Vav hebrew sound of the Hebrew Languages. This is one of the top people in the world when it comes to the Hebrew language. I asked him… There are five Jewish communities that preserve this ‘w’ pronunciation. One of them is the Yemenite Jews…
Michael: Just five?
Nehemia: Just five small Jewish communities. Of all the Jews in eaton vave world, only five preserved the “w” sound.
Michael: That’s probably instructive in itself…
Nehemia: It’s interesting.
Michael: …where they are.
Nehemia: There are Yemenite Jews, Libyan Jews, and a few other places like that, and they’re all Arabic speaking. I said to this vavá machado, “Is it possible that this was influenced by Arabic?” He said, “It’s not possible, it’s 100 percent certain.” This is one of the top experts in the world. He’s vav hebrew sound no agenda, no axe to grind. He’s actually an Arabic-speaker himself.
Michael: And he’s not pronouncing the name anyway.
Nehemia: He’s not pronouncing the name anyway.
Michael: It’s not a name issue.
Nehemia: He’s talking about the Hebrew language. He doesn’t even know I’m interested in the name. I’m talking to him about vav hebrew sound pronunciation of the Hebrew language. Then he showed me some ancient sources, it’s quite fascinating.
Basically, what vav hebrew sound saying is, “You can explain why a Yemenite Jew would say ‘w’, because he’s speaking Arabic, and in Arabic they have the same letter and it’s ‘w’. But why would vav hebrew sound Jew from Damascus who speaks Arabic as his daily language, why when he all of a sudden reads Hebrew in the synagogue would his daily ‘w’ become ‘v?’ He’s clearly preserving something authentic to the Hebrew language.”
Now, that’s only 150 years ago, 200 years ago. I wanted to go back further. So I scoured the vav hebrew sound with his help, and one of the things I found is that in ancient Hebrew we have vav hebrew sound poet named Kalir, in the 6th century in the Land of Israel. Now we’re going back 1,400, 1,500 years. This poet is rhyming, and he rhymes two words, the word “Levi”, Levite, which is with a Vav, and the other word is “navi”, prophet. Now, here’s the really funny thing. I’ll get these emails where they’ll say, vav hebrew sound thought you know Hebrew, Nehemia. How is it you don’t know there’s no ‘v’ sound in the original Hebrew language?” The one thing all Jewish communities agree, whether you’re from Yemen or Damascus or the mountains of Kurdistan, all Jews agreed that the “v” sound, the “vee” sound does exist in the Hebrew language in the letter Bet. The letter Bet with a dot is “buh,” without a dot it’s “vuh”. The example is Yaakov. In English it’s JacoB, but in Hebrew it’s “YaakoV.” It’s a soft Bet. A vav hebrew sound Bet is a vav hebrew sound sound. All Jews agree that that “vuh” sound exists in the Hebrew language. The only dispute is about the “wuh” versus the “vuh” in the Vav, the sixth letter of the alphabet.
So this poet from the 6th century, from the 500s, he rhymes “navi” with a soft Bet, which everyone agrees on, with “LeVi.” Now, according to the Yemenites, they don’t pronounce it “Levi,” they pronounce it “LeWi.” Vav hebrew sound doesn’t rhyme with “navi”. He has a whole series of words which are “v, vav hebrew sound, v, v, v, v – actually vee, vee, vee, vee, vee, vee. One of those is “Levi.” There’s no question whatsoever that 1,500 years ago in the land of Israel, the Jews pronounced that sound as a “vuh”.
The interesting thing is, 700 years later this rabbi comes along named Ibn Ezra. He was a famous poet, and he was criticizing this earlier poet from 700 years before and he said, “How can he be so stupid to rhyme ‘navi’ with ‘Levi’?” Because the Ibn Ezra spoke Arabic, and in his Hebrew, it was “Lewi”. He doesn’t understand how this guy 700 years before in Israel is rhyming “navi” with “Lewi”. There you see the influence of Arabic. You can go back all the way to the time of Ezekiel and show, for example, the word for back in Hebrew is “gav.” Gav can be written with a soft Bet or with a Vav, and the only way that can happen is if the soft Bet and the Vav have the same pronunciation.
Michael: I need to point out vav hebrew sound the reason why you’re seeing all this is that Nehemia’s not reading the Hebrew words translated into English, he’s reading these ancient things in hand-written Hebrew.
Nehemia: Oh vav hebrew sound, these are Hebrew manuscripts.
Michael: They’ll never be translated into English. There’s no point.
Nehemia: You can show me a book from 2016 from a guy who doesn’t know Hebrew who thinks that the Arabs hebrew difference vav and Hebrews, and that’s your source. If that’s your source, the conversation’s over. I’m showing you ancient Hebrew manuscripts. I’m showing you in manuscripts of the Tanakh where they’re writing the word “gav”, back, both with a Vav and a soft vav hebrew sound, and clearly, in the time of Ezekiel they’re pronouncing it that way. So there’s no question whatsoever - if you’d asked Ezekiel to pronounce the name of God, he would not have said, “Yehowah.” He would have said, “Yehovah”.
Announcer: You have been listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at nehemiaswall.com.
You have been listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
We hope the above transcript has proven to be a helpful resource in your study. While much vav hebrew sound has been taken to provide you with this transcript, it should vav hebrew sound noted that the text has not been reviewed by the vav k factor calculation and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. If vav hebrew sound would like to support our efforts to transcribe the teachings on NehemiasWall.com, please visit our support page. All donations vav hebrew sound tax-deductible (501c3) and help us empower people around the world with the Hebrew sources of their faith!
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Apple Podcasts
How to Utter Hebrew Vav: “Vav” or “Waw”?
Posted by Navah on Vav k factor calculation 19, 2016
There are scholars who teach that because Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic languages the Hebrew letter וvav must have been pronounced waw [w] in ancient Hebrew, as it was in Arabic, instead of vav [v]. Although, it is true that both languages are closely related they are not identical and letters from one do not necessarily vocalize the same way in the other.
It is also true vav hebrew sound vav is vocalized by the Jews in most Arabic-speaking communities as the semivowel [w], i.e. waw; but in some communities of Syria and Egypt, as well as in northwest Morocco, it is vocalized as [v] and in the communities of northeast Morocco the vocalization [w] has the variant [v].
In vav hebrew sound Aramaic-speaking communities the same letter is vocalized as [w] while in the Persian-speaking communities the realization is identical to that of soft ב bet, [v]. In all Ashkenazi communities Jews vocalize vav as [v], not waw [w]. Therefore, we can notice that all realizations of vav as waw [w] come from Arabic influence; they are not Hebraic.
So, can we be sure as to how to vocalize the Hebrew letter vav? Is it vav or waw? What does the Hebrew text of the Tanak say regarding this matter?
There is a peculiar occurrence of a Hebrew word which can be spelled in two different ways. This is the word גּוgav, and means “back” as of a human being; it is a masculine noun. It comes from the verb גּאהga’ah, to rise up, grow up, to be lifted up, be raised up, be exalted, as one becomes or appears high or vav k factor calculation by rising his back. גּוgav has total of eight occurrences in the Tanak: in 1Ki 14:9, Pro 10:13, Pro 19:29, Pro 26:3, Isa 38:17, Isa 50:6, Eze 23:35, and Neh 9:26.
גּו corresponds to another Hebrew wordגּב gav with the same meaning, “back”. Actually, this is the same word but spelled with letter bet instead of letter vav. It is a noun masculine or feminine with an occurrence only in Dan 7:6, as we read from the Aramaic section of the book,
After this I looked and saw another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and rule was given to it. (Dan 7:6)
Note: Daniel 1-7 are written in Aramaic and Daniel speaks in them in the third person (Dan 7:1-2) vav hebrew sound a historical narrative. They separate themselves from the following chapters written in Hebrew, in which Daniel speaks in the first person. The other thing that separates Daniel 1-7 from Daniel 8-12 is the absence of the Tetragrammaton (the Name of the Creator) in the Aramaic section of the book. We do not know the reason for this separation, but we can only speculate that the prophet did not want to write down the Set-apart Name of the Creator in a tongue other than Hebrew.
With that being said, we have no evidence to believe that the Hebrew word gav is written in a defective way in Aramaic, but that גּב gav is a variant of גּו. The wordגּבgav, “back”, comes from the root verb spelled identically with the meaning to hollow or curve, hence the back as rounded. This same wordגּבgav, “back”, appears in the Hebrew text of Eze 10:12 in the description of the heavenly beings cheruvim,
And their entire bodies, and their backs, and their hands, and vav k factor calculation
wings, and the wheels that the four had, were covered with eyes all around. (Eze 10:12)
Therefore, we conclude that both spellings of the word gav are interchangeable, since they have the same meaning in Hebrew and in Aramaic. From the spellings of gav we see that the vocalizations of vav and bet are also interchangeable.
Hence, we may conclude that letter vav is vocalized in Hebrew only as [v] since letter bet always vocalizes as either [b] or soft [v], but never waw [w].
It is not in the scope of this article to prove that all languages are corrupted but one: Hebrew. After the confusion of the languages at the tower of Bavel, Hebrew has been preserved as the pure language of the Creation. But, before Bavel the entire mankind at that time spoke one language, Hebrew, which when traced back leads to the language spoken by Adam. This is the language of Creation; this is the language spoken by the Creator, when He literally spoke out the words and the things came into existence.
How do we know that Hebrew was the language of Creation and all other languages had been vav hebrew sound The answer is simple. All Biblical names starting vav hebrew sound Adam through the line of Shem son of Noach have meanings in Hebrew. All other names after the confusion of the languages at Bavel through the lines of Yaphet and Ham sons of Noach have no meanings in Hebrew.
The cousin languages of Hebrew such as Arabic, Aramaic, Acadian and others appear to be corrupted versions of Hebrew, not the other way around as some scholars teach.
Therefore, the correct pronunciation of the Hebrew letter vav is [v], not waw [w] as in Arabic. The influence of the Arabic language into Hebrew (brought in by the Arabic speaking Jewish communities) has made the confusion that the Hebrew letter vav is vocalised as waw vav hebrew sound the importance of the correct vocalization of וvav in the Creator’s distinctive Name read the article The Vava 4k discount Yehovah vs. the Roman Yahweh.
Navah
May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days.
when was the vav in hebrew names not pronouncesd
edit source]
וּ The shuruq is the dot to the left of the Vav.[2]
It produces the "u" sound (IPA: /u/, "u" as in "flu").
When charged by any other vowel Vav is pronounced as a "v".
Connection Vav - Vav Haħibur[edit edit source]
You remember the Definite He?
We learned then that while in English the definite article exists as a separate word ("the"), in Hebrew it exists as an affix, namely the letter He. So if bat means "a daughter", habat means "the daughter".
The same is true for the conjunction "and". While, in English, "and" is a separate word, in Hebrew it appears as an affix, a letter that you add to the beginning of any word and functions as a separate word. For example:
אָבav father
אֵםem mother
אָב וָאֵםav va’em father and mother
Words[edit edit source]
שָׁלוֹםshalom peace (masculine, singular), hello, goodbye
בּוּלbul postal stamp (masculine, singular), bull's-eye, spot on!
שֵׁןshen tooth (feminine, singular)
מַתָּנָהmatanah gift, present (feminine, singular)
מָלוֹןmalon hotel (masculine, singular)
מִלָהmilah word, circumcision (feminine, singular)
אוֹתot letter (alphabet), sign (feminine, singular)
Summary[edit edit source]
In this lesson, you have learned:
- The letters Lamed ל and Vav ו.
- The niqqud symbols Ħolam (ֹ) and Shuruq (ּ).
- The words שָׁלוֹם, בּוּל, שֵׁן, מַתָּנָה, מָלוֹן, מִלָה and אוֹת.
- The conjunction "and" in Hebrew - Vav Haħibur.
Practice what you've learned in the exercises.
Next lesson: Aleph-Bet 5 >>>
Notes[edit edit source]
- At this point you know the letters necessary for most of the vocabulary in the first lesson on family in Hebrew.
- ↑There are two forms of the Hebrew alphabet: a print form for printing and reading, and a handwritten form for reading.
Since the purpose of this level is to learn how to read Hebrew, the print version is taught. In the handwritten alphabet some other letters rise above the line.
- ↑In some browsers, the dot may appear in the wrong place. It should show up on the left of the vav about vertically midway.
Nehemia's Wall
Hebrew Voices #66 - The Historical Pronunciation of Vav
You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon.
Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
Nehemia: There’s no question whatsoever that 1,500 years ago in the land of Israel, the Jews pronounced that sound as a “v.”
Announcer: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot.
Announcer: You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon.
Thank you for supporting Nehemia’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at nehemiaswall.com.
Michael: So much has come into question about the pronunciation of the Name.
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. Let’s handle some of the basics on that.
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.
Can I read one?
Michael: Yes.
Nehemia: This is very typical of the type of questions I’ll get on this. Usually, what they’ll say is, “I thought you knew Hebrew. 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…”
Michael: They start off, “With all due respect,” and then they insult you.
[laughing]
Nehemia: Right, they don’t even bother with that. He says, “I’m slightly puzzled with the pronunciation of “wow”. 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.”
Here’s what the argument is; that somehow the pronunciation of the sound “v” comes from 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. 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. Yiddish is a dialect of German. I’m told it’s closer to Dutch than it is to German. But it’s mixed in 85 percent German, about 10 percent Hebrew, and 5 percent from other languages, Slavic and things like that.
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.
Let’s back up even before that. 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?
What happened is that scholars went around the Jewish world in the 1800s. This is at the time when there were Jews living all over the world without communication with each other. They documented how they pronounced every letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Bet, Gimmel, Daled, Hei.
All of those were identical. 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 all pronounced Hebrew the same.
When they got to the sixth letter of the alphabet, they found two different pronunciation traditions.
Some Jews pronounced the letter as “vuh” as a “v” in English. But it was a Hebrew letter. And some pronounced it as a “wuh,” like a “w” in English. I say “like a w” but it was not a W.
I’ll get people here, a guy writes to me and he says, “But the ‘w’ only came later. Originally, there was just a v.” That has nothing to do with Hebrew. The Hebrew language has authentically those two sounds in the 1800s, some Jews “v,” some Jews “w”. In fact, most Jews pronounced it “v,” not just the German-speaking, Yiddish-speaking Jews.
But for example, the Jews of Syria who had been there since the time of King David, when they read from the Torah, they pronounce the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet as “v.”
That’s very interesting, because when they speak at home to each other they don’t speak Hebrew.
When they were at home in Damascus and Aleppo - before they were driven out of there - they would speak Arabic. Arabic doesn’t have a “v” sound. It has that letter - the letter Vav exists in Arabic, and it’s pronounced “wow.” In fact, the pronunciation of “wow” comes from Arabic.
I was sitting recently with a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Languages.
This is one of the top people in the world when it comes to the Hebrew language. I asked him… There are five Jewish communities that preserve this ‘w’ pronunciation. One of them is the Yemenite Jews…
Michael: Just five?
Nehemia: Just five small Jewish communities. Of all the Jews in the world, only five preserved the “w” sound.
Michael: That’s probably instructive in itself…
Nehemia: It’s interesting.
Michael: …where they are.
Nehemia: There are Yemenite Jews, Libyan Jews, and a few other places like that, and they’re all Arabic speaking.
I said to this professor, “Is it possible that this was influenced by Arabic?” He said, “It’s not possible, it’s 100 percent certain.” This is one of the top experts in the world.
He’s got no agenda, no axe to grind. He’s actually an Arabic-speaker himself.
Michael: And he’s not pronouncing the name anyway.
Nehemia: He’s not pronouncing the name anyway.
Michael: It’s not a name issue...
Nehemia: He’s talking about the Hebrew language.
He doesn’t even know I’m interested in the name. I’m talking to him about the pronunciation of the Hebrew language. Then he showed me some ancient sources, it’s quite fascinating.
Basically, what he’s saying is, “You can explain why a Yemenite Jew would say ‘w’, because he’s speaking Arabic, and in Arabic they have the same letter and it’s ‘w’.
But why would a Jew from Damascus who speaks Arabic as his daily language, why when he all of a sudden reads Hebrew in the synagogue would his daily ‘w’ become ‘v?’ He’s clearly preserving something authentic to the Hebrew language.”
Now, that’s only 150 years ago, 200 years ago. I wanted to go back further. So I scoured the sources with his help, and one of the things I found is that in ancient Hebrew we have a poet named Kalir, in the 6th century in the Land of Israel.
Now we’re going back 1,400, 1,500 years. This poet is rhyming, and he rhymes two words, the word “Levi”, Levite, which is with a Vav, and the other word is “navi”, prophet. Now, here’s the really funny thing. I’ll get these emails where they’ll say, “I thought you know Hebrew, Nehemia. How is it you don’t know there’s no ‘v’ sound in the original Hebrew language?” The one thing all Jewish communities agree, whether you’re from Yemen or Damascus or the mountains of Kurdistan, all Jews agreed that the “v” sound, the “vee” sound does exist in the Hebrew language in the letter Bet.
The letter Bet with a dot is “buh,” without a dot it’s “vuh”. The example is Yaakov. In English it’s JacoB, but in Hebrew it’s “YaakoV.” It’s a soft Bet. A soft Bet is a “vuh” sound. All Jews agree that that “vuh” sound exists in the Hebrew language. The only dispute is about the “wuh” versus the “vuh” in the Vav, the sixth letter of the alphabet.
So this poet from the 6th century, from the 500s, he rhymes “navi” with a soft Bet, which everyone agrees on, with “LeVi.” Now, according to the Yemenites, they don’t pronounce it “Levi,” they pronounce it “LeWi.” Lewi doesn’t rhyme with “navi”.
He has a whole series of words which are “v, v, v, v, v, v – actually vee, vee, vee, vee, vee, vee. One of those is “Levi.” There’s no question whatsoever that 1,500 years ago in the land of Israel, the Jews pronounced that sound as a “vuh”.
The interesting thing is, 700 years later this rabbi comes along named Ibn Ezra.
He was a famous poet, and he was criticizing this earlier poet from 700 years before and he said, “How can he be so stupid to rhyme ‘navi’ with ‘Levi’?” Because the Ibn Ezra spoke Arabic, and in his Hebrew, it was “Lewi”.
He doesn’t understand how this guy 700 years before in Israel is rhyming “navi” with “Lewi”. There you see the influence of Arabic.
You can go back all the way to the time of Ezekiel and show, for example, the word for back in Hebrew is “gav.” Gav can be written with a soft Bet or with a Vav, and the only way that can happen is if the soft Bet and the Vav have the same pronunciation.
Michael: I need to point out that the reason why you’re seeing all this is that Nehemia’s not reading the Hebrew words translated into English, he’s reading these ancient things in hand-written Hebrew.
Nehemia: Oh yes, these are Hebrew manuscripts.
Michael: They’ll never be translated into English.
There’s no point.
Nehemia: You can show me a book from 2016 from a guy who doesn’t know Hebrew who thinks that the Arabs are Hebrews, and that’s your source. If that’s your source, the conversation’s over. I’m showing you ancient Hebrew manuscripts. I’m showing you in manuscripts of the Tanakh where they’re writing the word “gav”, back, both with a Vav and a soft Bet, and clearly, in the time of Ezekiel they’re pronouncing it that way.
So there’s no question whatsoever - if you’d asked Ezekiel to pronounce the name of God, he would not have said, “Yehowah.” He would have said, “Yehovah”.
Announcer: You have been listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia’s Makor Hebrew Foundation.
Learn more at nehemiaswall.com.
You have been listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
We hope the above transcript has proven to be a helpful resource in your study. While much effort has been taken to provide you with this transcript, it should be noted that the text has not been reviewed by the speakers and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. If you would like to support our efforts to transcribe the teachings on NehemiasWall.com, please visit our support page.
All donations are tax-deductible (501c3) and help us empower people around the world with the Hebrew sources of their faith!
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Hebrew/Aleph-Bet/4
Aleph-Bet Lesson 4 — ל ו
Welcome to the fourth lesson of the Hebrew alphabet! In this lesson you will learn the two new Hebrew letters - ל and ו, and two new niqqud symbols - ħolam and shuruq.
Letters[edit
Ancient Name: Waw Pictograph: Peg Meanings: Add, Secure, Hook Sound: W, ow, uw
The original pictograph used in the Early Semitic script is a , a picture of a tent peg. The tent pegs were made of wood and may have been Y-shaped to prevent the rope from slipping off.
The Modern Hebrew name for this letter is vav, a word meaning "peg" or "hook." This letter is used as a consonant with a "v" sound and as a vowel with a "ow" and "uw" sound. The consonantal and vowel pronunciations of each of the consonant/vowel letters of the Ancient Hebrew language, which include the aleph, hey, vav, and yud, were closely related. For instance, the letter hey is "h" and "eh" and the pronunciations of vav hebrew sound letter yud is "y" and "iy." Following this pattern, it is probable that the original pronunciation of vava vienna letter was "w" as the vowel sounds associated with this letter are "ow" and "uw." In addition, in the Vav hebrew sound Arabic language, this letter is pronounced with a "w." Therefore, the original name of this letter would have been waw instead of vav, as it is in Modern Hebrew.
As the pictograph indicates, this letter represents a peg or hook, which is used for securing something. The meaning of this letter is vav hebrew sound add or secure.
This letter is frequently used as a prefix to words to mean "and" in the sense of adding things together.
The Early Semitic hebrew difference vav and src="https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/hebrew/heb-anc-sm-vav.jpg"> evolved into the in the Middle Semitic script. This letter then became the in the Late Vav hebrew sound script and evolved into the Modern Hebrew. The Middle Semitic letter was adopted by the Greeks and the Romans to be the letter F, but was dropped from the Greek alphabet and does not exist in the Modern Greek alphabet. The Late Semitic form of the letter became the number 9.
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Hebrew Voices #66 - The Historical Pronunciation of Vav
You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
Nehemia: There’s no question whatsoever that 1,500 years ago in the land of Israel, the Jews pronounced that sound as a “v.”
Announcer: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot.
Announcer: You are listening to Hebrew Voices vav hebrew sound Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at nehemiaswall.com.
Michael: So much has come into question about the pronunciation of the Name. 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. Let’s handle some of the basics on that.
Nehemia: One of the vavo bundle url 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. Can I read one?
Michael: Yes.
Nehemia: This is very typical of the type of questions I’ll get on this. Usually, what they’ll say is, “I thought you knew Hebrew. 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…”
Michael: They start off, “With all due vav hebrew sound and then they insult you. [laughing]
Nehemia: Right, they don’t vav hebrew sound bother with that. He says, “I’m slightly puzzled with the pronunciation of “wow”. I am admittedly no Hebrew scholar…” I’ll bet, “but for years I have been under the vav hebrew sound that the “wow” is pronounced with a hard ‘v’ because of vav hebrew sound from German translators, and that the “w” is pronounced as a German “w” vav hebrew sound is a “v.”
Here’s what the vav hebrew sound is; that somehow the pronunciation of the sound “v” comes from German. Now, where do they get that idea? Vav k factor calculation not as far-fetched as it sounds at first, because many Jews coming from Europe spoke a language called Yiddish. 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. Yiddish is a dialect vav hebrew sound German. I’m told it’s closer to Dutch than it is to German. But it’s mixed in 85 percent German, about 10 percent Hebrew, and 5 percent from other languages, Slavic and things like that.
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. Let’s back up even before that. 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?
What happened is that scholars went around the Jewish world in the 1800s. This is at the time when there were Jews living all over the world without communication with each other. They documented how they pronounced every letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Bet, Gimmel, Daled, Hei. All of those were identical. 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 all pronounced Hebrew the same.
When they got to the sixth letter of the alphabet, they found two different pronunciation traditions. Some Jews pronounced the letter as “vuh” as a “v” in English. But it was a Hebrew letter. And some pronounced it as a “wuh,” like a “w” in English. I say “like a w” but it was not a W. I’ll get people here, vava mac dongle guy writes to me and he says, “But vav hebrew sound ‘w’ only came later. Originally, there was just a v.” That has nothing to do with Hebrew. The Hebrew language has authentically those two sounds in the 1800s, some Jews “v,” vav hebrew sound Jews “w”. In fact, most Jews pronounced it “v,” not just the German-speaking, Yiddish-speaking Jews. But for example, the Jews of Syria who had been there since the time of King David, when they read from the Torah, they pronounce price vav warranty sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet as “v.”
That’s very interesting, because when they speak at home to each other they don’t speak Hebrew. When they were at home in Damascus and Aleppo - before they were driven out of there - vav hebrew sound would speak Arabic. Arabic doesn’t have a “v” sound. It has that letter - the letter Vav exists in Arabic, and it’s pronounced “wow.” In fact, the pronunciation of “wow” comes from Arabic.
I was sitting recently with a member of the Vav hebrew sound of the Hebrew Languages. This is one of the top people in the world when it comes to the Hebrew language. I asked him… There are five Jewish communities that preserve this ‘w’ pronunciation. One of them is the Yemenite Jews…
Michael: Just five?
Nehemia: Just five small Jewish communities. Of all the Jews in eaton vave world, only five preserved the “w” sound.
Michael: That’s probably instructive in itself…
Nehemia: It’s interesting.
Michael: …where they are.
Nehemia: There are Yemenite Jews, Libyan Jews, and a few other places like that, and they’re all Arabic speaking. I said to this vavá machado, “Is it possible that this was influenced by Arabic?” He said, “It’s not possible, it’s 100 percent certain.” This is one of the top experts in the world. He’s vav hebrew sound no agenda, no axe to grind. He’s actually an Arabic-speaker himself.
Michael: And he’s not pronouncing the name anyway.
Nehemia: He’s not pronouncing the name anyway.
Michael: It’s not a name issue.
Nehemia: He’s talking about the Hebrew language. He doesn’t even know I’m interested in the name. I’m talking to him about vav hebrew sound pronunciation of the Hebrew language. Then he showed me some ancient sources, it’s quite fascinating.
Basically, what vav hebrew sound saying is, “You can explain why a Yemenite Jew would say ‘w’, because he’s speaking Arabic, and in Arabic they have the same letter and it’s ‘w’. But why would vav hebrew sound Jew from Damascus who speaks Arabic as his daily language, why when he all of a sudden reads Hebrew in the synagogue would his daily ‘w’ become ‘v?’ He’s clearly preserving something authentic to the Hebrew language.”
Now, that’s only 150 years ago, 200 years ago. I wanted to go back further. So I scoured the vav hebrew sound with his help, and one of the things I found is that in ancient Hebrew we have vav hebrew sound poet named Kalir, in the 6th century in the Land of Israel. Now we’re going back 1,400, 1,500 years. This poet is rhyming, and he rhymes two words, the word “Levi”, Levite, which is with a Vav, and the other word is “navi”, prophet. Now, here’s the really funny thing. I’ll get these emails where they’ll say, vav hebrew sound thought you know Hebrew, Nehemia. How is it you don’t know there’s no ‘v’ sound in the original Hebrew language?” The one thing all Jewish communities agree, whether you’re from Yemen or Damascus or the mountains of Kurdistan, all Jews agreed that the “v” sound, the “vee” sound does exist in the Hebrew language in the letter Bet. The letter Bet with a dot is “buh,” without a dot it’s “vuh”. The example is Yaakov. In English it’s JacoB, but in Hebrew it’s “YaakoV.” It’s a soft Bet. A vav hebrew sound Bet is a vav hebrew sound sound. All Jews agree that that “vuh” sound exists in the Hebrew language. The only dispute is about the “wuh” versus the “vuh” in the Vav, the sixth letter of the alphabet.
So this poet from the 6th century, from the 500s, he rhymes “navi” with a soft Bet, which everyone agrees on, with “LeVi.” Now, according to the Yemenites, they don’t pronounce it “Levi,” they pronounce it “LeWi.” Vav hebrew sound doesn’t rhyme with “navi”. He has a whole series of words which are “v, vav hebrew sound, v, v, v, v – actually vee, vee, vee, vee, vee, vee. One of those is “Levi.” There’s no question whatsoever that 1,500 years ago in the land of Israel, the Jews pronounced that sound as a “vuh”.
The interesting thing is, 700 years later this rabbi comes along named Ibn Ezra. He was a famous poet, and he was criticizing this earlier poet from 700 years before and he said, “How can he be so stupid to rhyme ‘navi’ with ‘Levi’?” Because the Ibn Ezra spoke Arabic, and in his Hebrew, it was “Lewi”. He doesn’t understand how this guy 700 years before in Israel is rhyming “navi” with “Lewi”. There you see the influence of Arabic. You can go back all the way to the time of Ezekiel and show, for example, the word for back in Hebrew is “gav.” Gav can be written with a soft Bet or with a Vav, and the only way that can happen is if the soft Bet and the Vav have the same pronunciation.
Michael: I need to point out vav hebrew sound the reason why you’re seeing all this is that Nehemia’s not reading the Hebrew words translated into English, he’s reading these ancient things in hand-written Hebrew.
Nehemia: Oh vav hebrew sound, these are Hebrew manuscripts.
Michael: They’ll never be translated into English. There’s no point.
Nehemia: You can show me a book from 2016 from a guy who doesn’t know Hebrew who thinks that the Arabs hebrew difference vav and Hebrews, and that’s your source. If that’s your source, the conversation’s over. I’m showing you ancient Hebrew manuscripts. I’m showing you in manuscripts of the Tanakh where they’re writing the word “gav”, back, both with a Vav and a soft vav hebrew sound, and clearly, in the time of Ezekiel they’re pronouncing it that way. So there’s no question whatsoever - if you’d asked Ezekiel to pronounce the name of God, he would not have said, “Yehowah.” He would have said, “Yehovah”.
Announcer: You have been listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at nehemiaswall.com.
You have been listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
We hope the above transcript has proven to be a helpful resource in your study. While much vav hebrew sound has been taken to provide you with this transcript, it should vav hebrew sound noted that the text has not been reviewed by the vav k factor calculation and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. If vav hebrew sound would like to support our efforts to transcribe the teachings on NehemiasWall.com, please visit our support page. All donations vav hebrew sound tax-deductible (501c3) and help us empower people around the world with the Hebrew sources of their faith!
SUPPORT NEHEMIA'S RESEARCH AND TEACHINGS!
Makor Hebrew Foundation is a 501c3 tax-deductible not for profit organization.
Subscribe to "Nehemia Gordon" on your favorite podcast app!
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How to Utter Hebrew Vav: “Vav” or “Waw”?
Posted by Navah on Vav k factor calculation 19, 2016
There are scholars who teach that because Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic languages the Hebrew letter וvav must have been pronounced waw [w] in ancient Hebrew, as it was in Arabic, instead of vav [v]. Although, it is true that both languages are closely related they are not identical and letters from one do not necessarily vocalize the same way in the other.
It is also true vav hebrew sound vav is vocalized by the Jews in most Arabic-speaking communities as the semivowel [w], i.e. waw; but in some communities of Syria and Egypt, as well as in northwest Morocco, it is vocalized as [v] and in the communities of northeast Morocco the vocalization [w] has the variant [v].
In vav hebrew sound Aramaic-speaking communities the same letter is vocalized as [w] while in the Persian-speaking communities the realization is identical to that of soft ב bet, [v]. In all Ashkenazi communities Jews vocalize vav as [v], not waw [w]. Therefore, we can notice that all realizations of vav as waw [w] come from Arabic influence; they are not Hebraic.
So, can we be sure as to how to vocalize the Hebrew letter vav? Is it vav or waw? What does the Hebrew text of the Tanak say regarding this matter?
There is a peculiar occurrence of a Hebrew word which can be spelled in two different ways. This is the word גּוgav, and means “back” as of a human being; it is a masculine noun. It comes from the verb גּאהga’ah, to rise up, grow up, to be lifted up, be raised up, be exalted, as one becomes or appears high or vav k factor calculation by rising his back. גּוgav has total of eight occurrences in the Tanak: in 1Ki 14:9, Pro 10:13, Pro 19:29, Pro 26:3, Isa 38:17, Isa 50:6, Eze 23:35, and Neh 9:26.
גּו corresponds to another Hebrew wordגּב gav with the same meaning, “back”. Actually, this is the same word but spelled with letter bet instead of letter vav. It is a noun masculine or feminine with an occurrence only in Dan 7:6, as we read from the Aramaic section of the book,
After this I looked and saw another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and rule was given to it. (Dan 7:6)
Note: Daniel 1-7 are written in Aramaic and Daniel speaks in them in the third person (Dan 7:1-2) vav hebrew sound a historical narrative. They separate themselves from the following chapters written in Hebrew, in which Daniel speaks in the first person. The other thing that separates Daniel 1-7 from Daniel 8-12 is the absence of the Tetragrammaton (the Name of the Creator) in the Aramaic section of the book. We do not know the reason for this separation, but we can only speculate that the prophet did not want to write down the Set-apart Name of the Creator in a tongue other than Hebrew.
With that being said, we have no evidence to believe that the Hebrew word gav is written in a defective way in Aramaic, but that גּב gav is a variant of גּו. The wordגּבgav, “back”, comes from the root verb spelled identically with the meaning to hollow or curve, hence the back as rounded. This same wordגּבgav, “back”, appears in the Hebrew text of Eze 10:12 in the description of the heavenly beings cheruvim,
And their entire bodies, and their backs, and their hands, and vav k factor calculation
wings, and the wheels that the four had, were covered with eyes all around. (Eze 10:12)
Therefore, we conclude that both spellings of the word gav are interchangeable, since they have the same meaning in Hebrew and in Aramaic. From the spellings of gav we see that the vocalizations of vav and bet are also interchangeable.
Hence, we may conclude that letter vav is vocalized in Hebrew only as [v] since letter bet always vocalizes as either [b] or soft [v], but never waw [w].
It is not in the scope of this article to prove that all languages are corrupted but one: Hebrew. After the confusion of the languages at the tower of Bavel, Hebrew has been preserved as the pure language of the Creation. But, before Bavel the entire mankind at that time spoke one language, Hebrew, which when traced back leads to the language spoken by Adam. This is the language of Creation; this is the language spoken by the Creator, when He literally spoke out the words and the things came into existence.
How do we know that Hebrew was the language of Creation and all other languages had been vav hebrew sound The answer is simple. All Biblical names starting vav hebrew sound Adam through the line of Shem son of Noach have meanings in Hebrew. All other names after the confusion of the languages at Bavel through the lines of Yaphet and Ham sons of Noach have no meanings in Hebrew.
The cousin languages of Hebrew such as Arabic, Aramaic, Acadian and others appear to be corrupted versions of Hebrew, not the other way around as some scholars teach.
Therefore, the correct pronunciation of the Hebrew letter vav is [v], not waw [w] as in Arabic. The influence of the Arabic language into Hebrew (brought in by the Arabic speaking Jewish communities) has made the confusion that the Hebrew letter vav is vocalised as waw vav hebrew sound the importance of the correct vocalization of וvav in the Creator’s distinctive Name read the article The Vava 4k discount Yehovah vs. the Roman Yahweh.
Navah
May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days.
when was the vav in hebrew names not pronouncesd
edit source]
וּ The shuruq is the dot to the left of the Vav.[2]
It produces the "u" sound (IPA: /u/, "u" as in "flu").
When charged by any other vowel Vav is pronounced as a "v".
Connection Vav - Vav Haħibur[edit edit source]
You remember the Definite He?
We learned then that while in English the definite article exists as a separate word ("the"), in Hebrew it exists as an affix, namely the letter He. So if bat means "a daughter", habat means "the daughter".
The same is true for the conjunction "and". While, in English, "and" is a separate word, in Hebrew it appears as an affix, a letter that you add to the beginning of any word and functions as a separate word. For example:
אָבav father
אֵםem mother
אָב וָאֵםav va’em father and mother
Words[edit edit source]
שָׁלוֹםshalom peace (masculine, singular), hello, goodbye
בּוּלbul postal stamp (masculine, singular), bull's-eye, spot on!
שֵׁןshen tooth (feminine, singular)
מַתָּנָהmatanah gift, present (feminine, singular)
מָלוֹןmalon hotel (masculine, singular)
מִלָהmilah word, circumcision (feminine, singular)
אוֹתot letter (alphabet), sign (feminine, singular)
Summary[edit edit source]
In this lesson, you have learned:
- The letters Lamed ל and Vav ו.
- The niqqud symbols Ħolam (ֹ) and Shuruq (ּ).
- The words שָׁלוֹם, בּוּל, שֵׁן, מַתָּנָה, מָלוֹן, מִלָה and אוֹת.
- The conjunction "and" in Hebrew - Vav Haħibur.
Practice what you've learned in the exercises.
Next lesson: Aleph-Bet 5 >>>
Notes[edit edit source]
- At this point you know the letters necessary for most of the vocabulary in the first lesson on family in Hebrew.
- ↑There are two forms of the Hebrew alphabet: a print form for printing and reading, and a handwritten form for reading.
Since the purpose of this level is to learn how to read Hebrew, the print version is taught. In the handwritten alphabet some other letters rise above the line.
- ↑In some browsers, the dot may appear in the wrong place. It should show up on the left of the vav about vertically midway.
| Ancient Name: | Waw |
| Pictograph: | Peg |
| Meanings: | Add, Secure, Hook |
| Sound: | W, ow, uw |
The original pictograph used in the Early Semitic script is a , a picture of a tent peg. The tent pegs were made of wood and may have been Y-shaped to prevent the rope from slipping off.
The Modern Hebrew name for this letter is vav, a word meaning "peg" or "hook." This letter is used as a consonant with a "v" sound and as a vowel with a "ow" and "uw" sound. The consonantal and vowel pronunciations of each of the consonant/vowel letters of the Ancient Hebrew language, which include the aleph, hey, vav, and yud, were closely related. For instance, the letter hey is "h" and "eh" and the pronunciations of vav hebrew sound letter yud is "y" and "iy." Following this pattern, it is probable that the original pronunciation of vava vienna letter was "w" as the vowel sounds associated with this letter are "ow" and "uw." In addition, in the Vav hebrew sound Arabic language, this letter is pronounced with a "w." Therefore, the original name of this letter would have been waw instead of vav, as it is in Modern Hebrew.
As the pictograph indicates, this letter represents a peg or hook, which is used for securing something. The meaning of this letter is vav hebrew sound add or secure.
This letter is frequently used as a prefix to words to mean "and" in the sense of adding things together.
The Early Semitic hebrew difference vav and src="https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/hebrew/heb-anc-sm-vav.jpg"> evolved into the in the Middle Semitic script. This letter then became the in the Late Vav hebrew sound script and evolved into the Modern Hebrew. The Middle Semitic letter was adopted by the Greeks and the Romans to be the letter F, but was dropped from the Greek alphabet and does not exist in the Modern Greek alphabet. The Late Semitic form of the letter became the number 9.
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You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
Nehemia: There’s no question whatsoever that 1,500 years ago in the land of Israel, the Jews pronounced that sound as a “v.”
Announcer: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot.
Announcer: You are listening to Hebrew Voices vav hebrew sound Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at nehemiaswall.com.
Michael: So much has come into question about the pronunciation of the Name. 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. Let’s handle some of the basics on that.
Nehemia: One of the vavo bundle url 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. Can I read one?
Michael: Yes.
Nehemia: This is very typical of the type of questions I’ll get on this. Usually, what they’ll say is, “I thought you knew Hebrew. 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…”
Michael: They start off, “With all due vav hebrew sound and then they insult you. [laughing]
Nehemia: Right, they don’t vav hebrew sound bother with that. He says, “I’m slightly puzzled with the pronunciation of “wow”. I am admittedly no Hebrew scholar…” I’ll bet, “but for years I have been under the vav hebrew sound that the “wow” is pronounced with a hard ‘v’ because of vav hebrew sound from German translators, and that the “w” is pronounced as a German “w” vav hebrew sound is a “v.”
Here’s what the vav hebrew sound is; that somehow the pronunciation of the sound “v” comes from German. Now, where do they get that idea? Vav k factor calculation not as far-fetched as it sounds at first, because many Jews coming from Europe spoke a language called Yiddish. 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. Yiddish is a dialect vav hebrew sound German. I’m told it’s closer to Dutch than it is to German. But it’s mixed in 85 percent German, about 10 percent Hebrew, and 5 percent from other languages, Slavic and things like that.
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. Let’s back up even before that. 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?
What happened is that scholars went around the Jewish world in the 1800s. This is at the time when there were Jews living all over the world without communication with each other. They documented how they pronounced every letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Bet, Gimmel, Daled, Hei. All of those were identical. 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 all pronounced Hebrew the same.
When they got to the sixth letter of the alphabet, they found two different pronunciation traditions. Some Jews pronounced the letter as “vuh” as a “v” in English. But it was a Hebrew letter. And some pronounced it as a “wuh,” like a “w” in English. I say “like a w” but it was not a W. I’ll get people here, vava mac dongle guy writes to me and he says, “But vav hebrew sound ‘w’ only came later. Originally, there was just a v.” That has nothing to do with Hebrew. The Hebrew language has authentically those two sounds in the 1800s, some Jews “v,” vav hebrew sound Jews “w”. In fact, most Jews pronounced it “v,” not just the German-speaking, Yiddish-speaking Jews. But for example, the Jews of Syria who had been there since the time of King David, when they read from the Torah, they pronounce price vav warranty sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet as “v.”
That’s very interesting, because when they speak at home to each other they don’t speak Hebrew. When they were at home in Damascus and Aleppo - before they were driven out of there - vav hebrew sound would speak Arabic. Arabic doesn’t have a “v” sound. It has that letter - the letter Vav exists in Arabic, and it’s pronounced “wow.” In fact, the pronunciation of “wow” comes from Arabic.
I was sitting recently with a member of the Vav hebrew sound of the Hebrew Languages. This is one of the top people in the world when it comes to the Hebrew language. I asked him… There are five Jewish communities that preserve this ‘w’ pronunciation. One of them is the Yemenite Jews…
Michael: Just five?
Nehemia: Just five small Jewish communities. Of all the Jews in eaton vave world, only five preserved the “w” sound.
Michael: That’s probably instructive in itself…
Nehemia: It’s interesting.
Michael: …where they are.
Nehemia: There are Yemenite Jews, Libyan Jews, and a few other places like that, and they’re all Arabic speaking. I said to this vavá machado, “Is it possible that this was influenced by Arabic?” He said, “It’s not possible, it’s 100 percent certain.” This is one of the top experts in the world. He’s vav hebrew sound no agenda, no axe to grind. He’s actually an Arabic-speaker himself.
Michael: And he’s not pronouncing the name anyway.
Nehemia: He’s not pronouncing the name anyway.
Michael: It’s not a name issue.
Nehemia: He’s talking about the Hebrew language. He doesn’t even know I’m interested in the name. I’m talking to him about vav hebrew sound pronunciation of the Hebrew language. Then he showed me some ancient sources, it’s quite fascinating.
Basically, what vav hebrew sound saying is, “You can explain why a Yemenite Jew would say ‘w’, because he’s speaking Arabic, and in Arabic they have the same letter and it’s ‘w’. But why would vav hebrew sound Jew from Damascus who speaks Arabic as his daily language, why when he all of a sudden reads Hebrew in the synagogue would his daily ‘w’ become ‘v?’ He’s clearly preserving something authentic to the Hebrew language.”
Now, that’s only 150 years ago, 200 years ago. I wanted to go back further. So I scoured the vav hebrew sound with his help, and one of the things I found is that in ancient Hebrew we have vav hebrew sound poet named Kalir, in the 6th century in the Land of Israel. Now we’re going back 1,400, 1,500 years. This poet is rhyming, and he rhymes two words, the word “Levi”, Levite, which is with a Vav, and the other word is “navi”, prophet. Now, here’s the really funny thing. I’ll get these emails where they’ll say, vav hebrew sound thought you know Hebrew, Nehemia. How is it you don’t know there’s no ‘v’ sound in the original Hebrew language?” The one thing all Jewish communities agree, whether you’re from Yemen or Damascus or the mountains of Kurdistan, all Jews agreed that the “v” sound, the “vee” sound does exist in the Hebrew language in the letter Bet. The letter Bet with a dot is “buh,” without a dot it’s “vuh”. The example is Yaakov. In English it’s JacoB, but in Hebrew it’s “YaakoV.” It’s a soft Bet. A vav hebrew sound Bet is a vav hebrew sound sound. All Jews agree that that “vuh” sound exists in the Hebrew language. The only dispute is about the “wuh” versus the “vuh” in the Vav, the sixth letter of the alphabet.
So this poet from the 6th century, from the 500s, he rhymes “navi” with a soft Bet, which everyone agrees on, with “LeVi.” Now, according to the Yemenites, they don’t pronounce it “Levi,” they pronounce it “LeWi.” Vav hebrew sound doesn’t rhyme with “navi”. He has a whole series of words which are “v, vav hebrew sound, v, v, v, v – actually vee, vee, vee, vee, vee, vee. One of those is “Levi.” There’s no question whatsoever that 1,500 years ago in the land of Israel, the Jews pronounced that sound as a “vuh”.
The interesting thing is, 700 years later this rabbi comes along named Ibn Ezra. He was a famous poet, and he was criticizing this earlier poet from 700 years before and he said, “How can he be so stupid to rhyme ‘navi’ with ‘Levi’?” Because the Ibn Ezra spoke Arabic, and in his Hebrew, it was “Lewi”. He doesn’t understand how this guy 700 years before in Israel is rhyming “navi” with “Lewi”. There you see the influence of Arabic. You can go back all the way to the time of Ezekiel and show, for example, the word for back in Hebrew is “gav.” Gav can be written with a soft Bet or with a Vav, and the only way that can happen is if the soft Bet and the Vav have the same pronunciation.
Michael: I need to point out vav hebrew sound the reason why you’re seeing all this is that Nehemia’s not reading the Hebrew words translated into English, he’s reading these ancient things in hand-written Hebrew.
Nehemia: Oh vav hebrew sound, these are Hebrew manuscripts.
Michael: They’ll never be translated into English. There’s no point.
Nehemia: You can show me a book from 2016 from a guy who doesn’t know Hebrew who thinks that the Arabs hebrew difference vav and Hebrews, and that’s your source. If that’s your source, the conversation’s over. I’m showing you ancient Hebrew manuscripts. I’m showing you in manuscripts of the Tanakh where they’re writing the word “gav”, back, both with a Vav and a soft vav hebrew sound, and clearly, in the time of Ezekiel they’re pronouncing it that way. So there’s no question whatsoever - if you’d asked Ezekiel to pronounce the name of God, he would not have said, “Yehowah.” He would have said, “Yehovah”.
Announcer: You have been listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at nehemiaswall.com.
You have been listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
We hope the above transcript has proven to be a helpful resource in your study. While much vav hebrew sound has been taken to provide you with this transcript, it should vav hebrew sound noted that the text has not been reviewed by the vav k factor calculation and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. If vav hebrew sound would like to support our efforts to transcribe the teachings on NehemiasWall.com, please visit our support page. All donations vav hebrew sound tax-deductible (501c3) and help us empower people around the world with the Hebrew sources of their faith!
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How to Utter Hebrew Vav: “Vav” or “Waw”?
Posted by Navah on Vav k factor calculation 19, 2016
There are scholars who teach that because Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic languages the Hebrew letter וvav must have been pronounced waw [w] in ancient Hebrew, as it was in Arabic, instead of vav [v]. Although, it is true that both languages are closely related they are not identical and letters from one do not necessarily vocalize the same way in the other.
It is also true vav hebrew sound vav is vocalized by the Jews in most Arabic-speaking communities as the semivowel [w], i.e. waw; but in some communities of Syria and Egypt, as well as in northwest Morocco, it is vocalized as [v] and in the communities of northeast Morocco the vocalization [w] has the variant [v].
In vav hebrew sound Aramaic-speaking communities the same letter is vocalized as [w] while in the Persian-speaking communities the realization is identical to that of soft ב bet, [v]. In all Ashkenazi communities Jews vocalize vav as [v], not waw [w]. Therefore, we can notice that all realizations of vav as waw [w] come from Arabic influence; they are not Hebraic.
So, can we be sure as to how to vocalize the Hebrew letter vav? Is it vav or waw? What does the Hebrew text of the Tanak say regarding this matter?
There is a peculiar occurrence of a Hebrew word which can be spelled in two different ways. This is the word גּוgav, and means “back” as of a human being; it is a masculine noun. It comes from the verb גּאהga’ah, to rise up, grow up, to be lifted up, be raised up, be exalted, as one becomes or appears high or vav k factor calculation by rising his back. גּוgav has total of eight occurrences in the Tanak: in 1Ki 14:9, Pro 10:13, Pro 19:29, Pro 26:3, Isa 38:17, Isa 50:6, Eze 23:35, and Neh 9:26.
גּו corresponds to another Hebrew wordגּב gav with the same meaning, “back”. Actually, this is the same word but spelled with letter bet instead of letter vav. It is a noun masculine or feminine with an occurrence only in Dan 7:6, as we read from the Aramaic section of the book,
After this I looked and saw another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and rule was given to it. (Dan 7:6)
Note: Daniel 1-7 are written in Aramaic and Daniel speaks in them in the third person (Dan 7:1-2) vav hebrew sound a historical narrative. They separate themselves from the following chapters written in Hebrew, in which Daniel speaks in the first person. The other thing that separates Daniel 1-7 from Daniel 8-12 is the absence of the Tetragrammaton (the Name of the Creator) in the Aramaic section of the book. We do not know the reason for this separation, but we can only speculate that the prophet did not want to write down the Set-apart Name of the Creator in a tongue other than Hebrew.
With that being said, we have no evidence to believe that the Hebrew word gav is written in a defective way in Aramaic, but that גּב gav is a variant of גּו. The wordגּבgav, “back”, comes from the root verb spelled identically with the meaning to hollow or curve, hence the back as rounded. This same wordגּבgav, “back”, appears in the Hebrew text of Eze 10:12 in the description of the heavenly beings cheruvim,
And their entire bodies, and their backs, and their hands, and vav k factor calculation
wings, and the wheels that the four had, were covered with eyes all around. (Eze 10:12)
Therefore, we conclude that both spellings of the word gav are interchangeable, since they have the same meaning in Hebrew and in Aramaic. From the spellings of gav we see that the vocalizations of vav and bet are also interchangeable.
Hence, we may conclude that letter vav is vocalized in Hebrew only as [v] since letter bet always vocalizes as either [b] or soft [v], but never waw [w].
It is not in the scope of this article to prove that all languages are corrupted but one: Hebrew. After the confusion of the languages at the tower of Bavel, Hebrew has been preserved as the pure language of the Creation. But, before Bavel the entire mankind at that time spoke one language, Hebrew, which when traced back leads to the language spoken by Adam. This is the language of Creation; this is the language spoken by the Creator, when He literally spoke out the words and the things came into existence.
How do we know that Hebrew was the language of Creation and all other languages had been vav hebrew sound The answer is simple. All Biblical names starting vav hebrew sound Adam through the line of Shem son of Noach have meanings in Hebrew. All other names after the confusion of the languages at Bavel through the lines of Yaphet and Ham sons of Noach have no meanings in Hebrew.
The cousin languages of Hebrew such as Arabic, Aramaic, Acadian and others appear to be corrupted versions of Hebrew, not the other way around as some scholars teach.
Therefore, the correct pronunciation of the Hebrew letter vav is [v], not waw [w] as in Arabic. The influence of the Arabic language into Hebrew (brought in by the Arabic speaking Jewish communities) has made the confusion that the Hebrew letter vav is vocalised as waw vav hebrew sound the importance of the correct vocalization of וvav in the Creator’s distinctive Name read the article The Vava 4k discount Yehovah vs. the Roman Yahweh.
Navah
May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days.
when was the vav in hebrew names not pronouncesd
edit source]
וּ The shuruq is the dot to the left of the Vav.[2]
It produces the "u" sound (IPA: /u/, "u" as in "flu").
When charged by any other vowel Vav is pronounced as a "v".
Connection Vav - Vav Haħibur[edit edit source]
You remember the Definite He?
We learned then that while in English the definite article exists as a separate word ("the"), in Hebrew it exists as an affix, namely the letter He. So if bat means "a daughter", habat means "the daughter".
The same is true for the conjunction "and". While, in English, "and" is a separate word, in Hebrew it appears as an affix, a letter that you add to the beginning of any word and functions as a separate word. For example:
אָבav father
אֵםem mother
אָב וָאֵםav va’em father and mother
Words[edit edit source]
שָׁלוֹםshalom peace (masculine, singular), hello, goodbye
בּוּלbul postal stamp (masculine, singular), bull's-eye, spot on!
שֵׁןshen tooth (feminine, singular)
מַתָּנָהmatanah gift, present (feminine, singular)
מָלוֹןmalon hotel (masculine, singular)
מִלָהmilah word, circumcision (feminine, singular)
אוֹתot letter (alphabet), sign (feminine, singular)
Summary[edit edit source]
In this lesson, you have learned:
- The letters Lamed ל and Vav ו.
- The niqqud symbols Ħolam (ֹ) and Shuruq (ּ).
- The words שָׁלוֹם, בּוּל, שֵׁן, מַתָּנָה, מָלוֹן, מִלָה and אוֹת.
- The conjunction "and" in Hebrew - Vav Haħibur.
Practice what you've learned in the exercises.
Next lesson: Aleph-Bet 5 >>>
Notes[edit edit source]
- At this point you know the letters necessary for most of the vocabulary in the first lesson on family in Hebrew.
- ↑There are two forms of the Hebrew alphabet: a print form for printing and reading, and a handwritten form for reading.
Since the purpose of this level is to learn how to read Hebrew, the print version is taught. In the handwritten alphabet some other letters rise above the line.
- ↑In some browsers, the dot may appear in the wrong place. It should show up on the left of the vav about vertically midway.
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Nehemia: There’s no question whatsoever that 1,500 years ago in the land of Israel, the Jews pronounced that sound as a “v.”
Announcer: Le ma’an Zion lo ekhesheh, u’l’ma’an Yerushalayim lo eshkot.
Announcer: You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon.
Thank you for supporting Nehemia’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at nehemiaswall.com.
Michael: So much has come into question about the pronunciation of the Name.
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. Let’s handle some of the basics on that.
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.
Can I read one?
Michael: Yes.
Nehemia: This is very typical of the type of questions I’ll get on this. Usually, what they’ll say is, “I thought you knew Hebrew. 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…”
Michael: They start off, “With all due respect,” and then they insult you.
[laughing]
Nehemia: Right, they don’t even bother with that. He says, “I’m slightly puzzled with the pronunciation of “wow”. 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.”
Here’s what the argument is; that somehow the pronunciation of the sound “v” comes from 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. 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. Yiddish is a dialect of German. I’m told it’s closer to Dutch than it is to German. But it’s mixed in 85 percent German, about 10 percent Hebrew, and 5 percent from other languages, Slavic and things like that.
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.
Let’s back up even before that. 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?
What happened is that scholars went around the Jewish world in the 1800s. This is at the time when there were Jews living all over the world without communication with each other. They documented how they pronounced every letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, Bet, Gimmel, Daled, Hei.
All of those were identical. 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 all pronounced Hebrew the same.
When they got to the sixth letter of the alphabet, they found two different pronunciation traditions.
Some Jews pronounced the letter as “vuh” as a “v” in English. But it was a Hebrew letter. And some pronounced it as a “wuh,” like a “w” in English. I say “like a w” but it was not a W.
I’ll get people here, a guy writes to me and he says, “But the ‘w’ only came later. Originally, there was just a v.” That has nothing to do with Hebrew. The Hebrew language has authentically those two sounds in the 1800s, some Jews “v,” some Jews “w”. In fact, most Jews pronounced it “v,” not just the German-speaking, Yiddish-speaking Jews.
But for example, the Jews of Syria who had been there since the time of King David, when they read from the Torah, they pronounce the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet as “v.”
That’s very interesting, because when they speak at home to each other they don’t speak Hebrew.
When they were at home in Damascus and Aleppo - before they were driven out of there - they would speak Arabic. Arabic doesn’t have a “v” sound. It has that letter - the letter Vav exists in Arabic, and it’s pronounced “wow.” In fact, the pronunciation of “wow” comes from Arabic.
I was sitting recently with a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Languages.
This is one of the top people in the world when it comes to the Hebrew language. I asked him… There are five Jewish communities that preserve this ‘w’ pronunciation. One of them is the Yemenite Jews…
Michael: Just five?
Nehemia: Just five small Jewish communities. Of all the Jews in the world, only five preserved the “w” sound.
Michael: That’s probably instructive in itself…
Nehemia: It’s interesting.
Michael: …where they are.
Nehemia: There are Yemenite Jews, Libyan Jews, and a few other places like that, and they’re all Arabic speaking.
I said to this professor, “Is it possible that this was influenced by Arabic?” He said, “It’s not possible, it’s 100 percent certain.” This is one of the top experts in the world.
He’s got no agenda, no axe to grind. He’s actually an Arabic-speaker himself.
Michael: And he’s not pronouncing the name anyway.
Nehemia: He’s not pronouncing the name anyway.
Michael: It’s not a name issue...
Nehemia: He’s talking about the Hebrew language.
He doesn’t even know I’m interested in the name. I’m talking to him about the pronunciation of the Hebrew language. Then he showed me some ancient sources, it’s quite fascinating.
Basically, what he’s saying is, “You can explain why a Yemenite Jew would say ‘w’, because he’s speaking Arabic, and in Arabic they have the same letter and it’s ‘w’.
But why would a Jew from Damascus who speaks Arabic as his daily language, why when he all of a sudden reads Hebrew in the synagogue would his daily ‘w’ become ‘v?’ He’s clearly preserving something authentic to the Hebrew language.”
Now, that’s only 150 years ago, 200 years ago. I wanted to go back further. So I scoured the sources with his help, and one of the things I found is that in ancient Hebrew we have a poet named Kalir, in the 6th century in the Land of Israel.
Now we’re going back 1,400, 1,500 years. This poet is rhyming, and he rhymes two words, the word “Levi”, Levite, which is with a Vav, and the other word is “navi”, prophet. Now, here’s the really funny thing. I’ll get these emails where they’ll say, “I thought you know Hebrew, Nehemia. How is it you don’t know there’s no ‘v’ sound in the original Hebrew language?” The one thing all Jewish communities agree, whether you’re from Yemen or Damascus or the mountains of Kurdistan, all Jews agreed that the “v” sound, the “vee” sound does exist in the Hebrew language in the letter Bet.
The letter Bet with a dot is “buh,” without a dot it’s “vuh”. The example is Yaakov. In English it’s JacoB, but in Hebrew it’s “YaakoV.” It’s a soft Bet. A soft Bet is a “vuh” sound. All Jews agree that that “vuh” sound exists in the Hebrew language. The only dispute is about the “wuh” versus the “vuh” in the Vav, the sixth letter of the alphabet.
So this poet from the 6th century, from the 500s, he rhymes “navi” with a soft Bet, which everyone agrees on, with “LeVi.” Now, according to the Yemenites, they don’t pronounce it “Levi,” they pronounce it “LeWi.” Lewi doesn’t rhyme with “navi”.
He has a whole series of words which are “v, v, v, v, v, v – actually vee, vee, vee, vee, vee, vee. One of those is “Levi.” There’s no question whatsoever that 1,500 years ago in the land of Israel, the Jews pronounced that sound as a “vuh”.
The interesting thing is, 700 years later this rabbi comes along named Ibn Ezra.
He was a famous poet, and he was criticizing this earlier poet from 700 years before and he said, “How can he be so stupid to rhyme ‘navi’ with ‘Levi’?” Because the Ibn Ezra spoke Arabic, and in his Hebrew, it was “Lewi”.
He doesn’t understand how this guy 700 years before in Israel is rhyming “navi” with “Lewi”. There you see the influence of Arabic.
You can go back all the way to the time of Ezekiel and show, for example, the word for back in Hebrew is “gav.” Gav can be written with a soft Bet or with a Vav, and the only way that can happen is if the soft Bet and the Vav have the same pronunciation.
Michael: I need to point out that the reason why you’re seeing all this is that Nehemia’s not reading the Hebrew words translated into English, he’s reading these ancient things in hand-written Hebrew.
Nehemia: Oh yes, these are Hebrew manuscripts.
Michael: They’ll never be translated into English.
There’s no point.
Nehemia: You can show me a book from 2016 from a guy who doesn’t know Hebrew who thinks that the Arabs are Hebrews, and that’s your source. If that’s your source, the conversation’s over. I’m showing you ancient Hebrew manuscripts. I’m showing you in manuscripts of the Tanakh where they’re writing the word “gav”, back, both with a Vav and a soft Bet, and clearly, in the time of Ezekiel they’re pronouncing it that way.
So there’s no question whatsoever - if you’d asked Ezekiel to pronounce the name of God, he would not have said, “Yehowah.” He would have said, “Yehovah”.
Announcer: You have been listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia’s Makor Hebrew Foundation.
Learn more at nehemiaswall.com.
You have been listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
We hope the above transcript has proven to be a helpful resource in your study. While much effort has been taken to provide you with this transcript, it should be noted that the text has not been reviewed by the speakers and its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. If you would like to support our efforts to transcribe the teachings on NehemiasWall.com, please visit our support page.
All donations are tax-deductible (501c3) and help us empower people around the world with the Hebrew sources of their faith!
Makor Hebrew Foundation is a 501c3 tax-deductible not for profit organization.
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