| Doug Miller 2007-09-28, 7:55 am |
| In article <13foqc6bb3rr1fe@news.supernews.com>, "HeyBub" <heybubNOSPAM@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>Martin Luther, who knew Hebrew but not this trick, simply transcribed the
>word as YaHoWaH. When the word was translated into English, The German "Y"
>became "J" and the German "W" became "V."
Close, but no cigar. A German would write the [English] Y *sound* with the
letter J, as in the German word for 'yes' -- spelled ja, and pronounced "yah".
Y is used only rarely in German. It's called 'ipsilon' in the German alphabet,
and it's sounded "ee" or "oo" -- but never as Y is sounded at the
beginning of English words.
What Luther would have pronounced as yay-ho-vah, he would certainly have
written as Jehowah. Why the German W kept its sound (changing its spelling to
V) and the German J kept its spelling (changing its sound to Y) when the word
migrated to English is one of life's little mysteries.
--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphag at milmac dot com)
It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.
|