The Pronunciation of the Letters According to the Septuagint
Just now, the Lord granted me possession of a book that cites hundreds of proper nouns from Scripture in Hebrew and in their Greek transliteration according to the Greek Septuagint. From this, it is possible to obetain a clear picture of the pronunciation of some of the letters from the mouths of our ancestors from the time of the Second Temple. Even though for the other letters it’s difficult to decide what their pronunciation was and what the Greek writers would have heard. This is due to the fact that the Greek letters are different from Hebrew. Behold, what I was able to ascertain with certainty, regarding their pronunciation, according to the transliterations.
The letter Beth (ב) is always transliterated as the letter B, or a hard Beth (בּ). However, we cannot deduce from this that our forefathers didn’t distinguish between the hard and soft Beth (ב) because ancient Greek completely lacked an equivalent to the letter V. Therefore, they transliterated the soft Beth (ב) as the closest thing they had to it.
Translator’s note: Modern Arabic also lacks an equivalent to the soft Beth (ב), which is to say, the letter V. However, Arabs do not normally transliterate the soft Israeli Beth (ב) as an Arabic Ba (ب). Instead, they use the letter Fa (ف), which has an F sound. Ancient Greek did have an F sound. During the time of the Septuagint, the Greek letter Phi (Φ) had that sound – yet they never used it for the soft Beth (ב). My conclusion is that Hebrew speakers of the time pronounced the soft Beth (ב) as a soft B sound, as we find in Spanish and sometimes in Arabic. This also makes the most sense grammatically, since it’s an actual “soft B” that uses the same parts of the mouth as the hard Beth (בּ),
The hard form of the letter Gimal (גּ) was always transliterated as the Greek letter that corresponds to the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Gimal (גּ). From this we can conclude that its pronunciation was like a regular (hard) G, for had it been pronounced like the (Arabic) letter Jim (ج), the translators should have transliterated it as a D or a Z or an S, or as a combination of two letters together.
The soft Gimal (ג) is transliterated as a soft Kaf (כ) or an Aleph (א) or a Daleth (ד) or a hard Gimal (גּ). From this we see that its pronunciation was not always like a hard Gimal (גּ). It appears that since Greek had no letter equivalent to our soft Gimal (ג), they sometimes transliterated it as a soft Kaf (כ) and sometimes as a different letter based on whatever seemed closest to it at the time he heard it. It’s possible that at that time, the rules of hard and soft letters were different from what we have today. This might be why sometimes the soft Gimal (ג) was like the hard version even though today it’s considered soft.
The letter Waw (ו) is transliterated as a U or an O. From this it is clear that the translator heard it as a W and not as a V. For had he heard it as a V, he would have transliterated it as a B just as he transliterated the soft Beth (ב) or perhaps he would have transliterated it as an F, which sounds similar to it.
The letter Sadi (צ) is transliterated consistently as the Greek equivalent to the letter S. This is clear proof that its pronunciation was not טס (TS), for it it was, he would have transliterated it as two letters (TS) just as is now done in English. At the very least, he would have added a T.
The letter Qof (ק) is transliterated sometimes with the letter K and sometimes with the equivalent of the soft Kaf (כ). From this, we can deduce that the translator heard the Qof (ק) as different from the letter K (hard Kaf כּ) and this is why he sometimes wrote it as a Khi (χ) or soft Kaf (כ), which is somewhat similar to the Middle Eastern Qof (ק), and sometimes as a Kappa (K), which is also somewhat similar to the Middle Eastern Qof (ק), However, it appears that sometimes, when the pronunciation of the Qof (ק) was deep and clear, he would transliterate it as a soft Kaf (כ), which is similar to it. When its pronunciation was weak and soft, he would transliterate it as a hard Kaf (כּ), which is a K sound.
The Vowels
The vowels have seven forms and the early rabbis referred to them as “The Seven Kings.” The early sages divided their pronunciations into three forms, which are known as the elevated form, the opening form and the bowing (lowering) form. They explained it thusly: Within the elevated form are the Holem (וֺ), the Shureq (וּ) (and the fleeting Qomes אֳ) whose pronunciation is elevated and close one to the other and the letter Waw serves as a vehicle for them.
The opening form includes the Patah, the broad Qomes, and the Seghul. The letters Aleph (א) and He (ה) serve as vehicles for them. The bowing form includes the Hiraq and the Seri. The letter Yod (י) serves as a vehicle for them. The letter Yod (י) also serves as a vehicle for Seghul when it serves to indicate plural – such as Batekha (בתיך) and ‘Enekha (עיניך). These are the seven kings (or vowels and vocalizations) according to the ancients.
Translator’s note:
This is as far as I’m going with the translation. I’m having trouble understanding what he’s saying, so naturally I can’t adequately translate it. I will, however, publish at least one followup on this project, so stay tuned.
