[Glorantha] Hebrew vowels (horribly OT)

[Andrew Solovay]

malk at malkavius.com wrote:
> 
> In its most ancient form, no, which is why no one really knows whether
> YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah, as the Name was never
> spoken, but at some point (not sure when), marks often referred to as
> "jots and tiddles" were added to the classical letters, to provide a
> guide to vowel sounds.  So my old A Level RE teacher told me anyway.

Actually, the vowel marks in the word YHWH aren't for the name itself, 
but rather, the vowel marks for the word "Adonai" ("Lord")--a reminder 
to the reader that when he comes to the word "YHWH", he should say 
"Adonai" instead. (That's what's done, for example, in Torah reading and 
prayers.)

As I understand it, a medieval Christian scholar saw the four-letter 
word YHWH, with the vocalization marks for "Adonai", and mistakenly 
thought that they were the vowels for the Name itself. As a result, he 
pronounced it "Yehowah", and that's where the name "Jehovah" comes from.