Pronunciation of initial I in Semitic names

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Ruth Mathys
Posts: 16
Joined: September 5th, 2011, 6:11 pm

Pronunciation of initial I in Semitic names

Post by Ruth Mathys »

What is the value of ι at the beginning of Semitic names like Ἰησοῦς, Ἰερουσαλήμ, Ἰουδαία, etc.? I always took it to be a semivowel [j], but...?

Ruth Mathys
S Walch
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Joined: June 13th, 2011, 4:27 pm
Location: Manchester, UK

Re: Pronunciation of initial I in Semitic names

Post by S Walch »

Not quite sure what you mean by 'value' of the letter Iota, but in this case Greek ι = Hebrew י, which is a vowel-consonant (used to represent both a vowel and a consonant), and as such is very much a consonant at the beginning of Semitic names.

For the pronunciation of ι, then see https://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/ ... unciation/

FWIW, I would pronounce the Ἰ at the beginning of names as 'ee' rather than 'iy'.
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