Yehudi
Is אהוד a derivative of יהודי as it appears to be? If so, what is the grammatical or phonological concept by which the yodh would be unvocalised? Sources appear to confirm. [1] [2], but this doesn't appear to be mentioned in the above articles. -Stevertigo 22:11, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
(Copied from talk:Stevertigo): -SV
- Ehud (name) is not related to Yehudah or Yehudi. The Biblical etymology for Judah is a combination of God (yod heh vav) and praise (daled heh); neither word is related to Ehud (aleph hey daled - no alecph in Yehudah). The yud can be unvocalized, to my knowledge always at the end of a word (like, well, yehudi (the first yod is vocalized, the final one is not) ... or the more common name, Eli (my God). Or Adonai (my lord)). That it is unvocalized at the end of a word does not mean that it would ever be transposed as an aleph at the beginning of a word (as in Ehud). As far as I know there is no accepted etymology for Ehud. I wonder whether it is derived from another language (Akkadian, Uggaritic) as is often the case when a Hebrew word does not really seem to fit. You could look at the Anchor Bible volume of Judges to see where Ehud first appears; if there is any accepted etymology of the word it would be in that commentary.
- Unless you can provide a notable and reliable source that states that Ehud is related to Yehudah, I don't see any connection between the two. I hope I answered your questions. User:Slrubenstein | Talk 22:37, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
- Thanks for the reply. I'll look into your explanation, but to my eye there appear to be three operations, common in many alphabetical or abjad transcription systems, and perhaps also existent in Hebrew:
- In "Yehudi" the final yodh, י (from yodh):
"as a suffix indicates first person singular possessive; av (father) becomes avi (my father)".Inversely "Yehud(a)" (a person's name) can be abstracted to yehudi meaning (possessive: of Yehudah, hence of the Jews, or of Judaism). Dropping the final yodh here appears to be a common way to get at the root, יהוד "yehud" and Yehud appears to be the root of Yehuda/Judah. - - The initial yodh י ("y") carries with it an "e" (or "a") sound, giving "ye", (or sometimes "ya"). In this case, removing the initial yodh from יהודי (Yehudi) would give only הודי "hudi" which appears to be destructive.
- Solving the above issue, The aleph, א as a mater lectionis can be transfixed to the beginning of a word, indicating a vowel of varying phonology. In this case, adding the aleph allows one to remove the "y" sound of the yodh, without compromising the vowel sound "e" implied by the yodh. Removing a consonant in an abjad has the unfortunate property of also removing the vowel, and in order to keep the vowel sound, and thus preserve a certain relationship with the original word, abjads use the few vowel characters they have to indicate the vowel. Abjads (Hebrew, Arabic) are by definition more limited than alphabets with regard to vowel phonology, in both speech and in written representation. Hence there are two vowel sounds for each of the Semitic mater lectonis. "A" and "e" for the aleph, "ye" and "i" for the yodh. -Stevertigo 20:02, 31 January 2009 (UTC)
- In "Yehudi" the final yodh, י (from yodh):
- Thanks for the reply. I'll look into your explanation, but to my eye there appear to be three operations, common in many alphabetical or abjad transcription systems, and perhaps also existent in Hebrew: