[safisoft]

Yud-Hey-Waw-Hey

I know that some "Sacred Name" people have argued thus, as well as many seminarians who have had to learn German before Hebrew, but I would simply point out that it is more likely German and Yiddish influences that gave us "Waw". Regardless, the pronunciation may in fact be as academic as how early English was pronounced... for instance, all our "J"s - can you prove they sounded like "JAY" as opposed to "IAY"?

My points were not so much about pronunciation, but about the letters themselves.

[Dave Elias]

Well, you are not wrong, the same also being true of latin. However, my fundemental point is that the name of God as written in antiquity is of uncertain pronounciation, although its pictographical representation (we disagree only as to the english alphabet interpretation me Waw, you Vav) an arm, a dude with his hands in the air, a hook peg thing, and another dude with his hands in the air is written in its entirety. Because of the unique nature of the letters that make up YHWH (or YHVH if you prefer)it could be pronounced in a number of ways.

I maintain the correct pronounciation was widely known once (people were illiterate and would not have relied upon text for correct diction), but over the years this knowledge has been lost since it is not clear from the word. This ambiguity has been interpreted as deliberate in order to prevent people from speaking such a holy word.

However regardless of the derivation of the tradition it now clearly is an expression of faith to regard the word itself as holy. Fair enough. What is fascinating is how the practise of ommiting the 'o' in God basically turns the ritual on its head. That is in Hebrew the word can be written, but cannot be correctly spoken, whereas in English this is transposed to become a word that may be spoken but not written.