# Hebrew pronounciation **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 11, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634 "2007-04-11T14:08:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/1 "2007-04-11T14:08:57Z")
I recently came across this name, while working in my line of duty. We got into a conversation about how it should be pronounced. The name was **Jabez** and he pronounced it Jay-Bez However there’s a camp of thought that says it should be Haa-Bez or even Hey-Bez. What would it have been in the original Hebrew ? Would it have been differant 4000 years ago ? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/2 "2007-04-11T14:17:50Z")
/J/ is pronounced /Y/ in native Hebrew words. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/3 "2007-04-11T14:17:52Z")
My quick take is ya-BEZ, yud-bet-zayin. The J is a comparatively modern rendition of the letter I/Y, and in Hebrew the accent is frequently on the final syllable. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/4 "2007-04-11T14:22:25Z")
[QUOTE=Scuba\_Ben] My quick take is ya-BEZ, yud-bet-zayin. The J is a comparatively modern rendition of the letter I/Y, and in Hebrew the accent is frequently on the final syllable. [/QUOTE] I’ve never encountered this name, ever – the only thing I can think of off-hand is a contemporary acronym for a present starlet in Israel, named Yael Bar-Zohar, whose name is often rendered as YBZ in the gossip columns. In which case it’s “yah-BAHZ” (pronounced acronyms generally take “ah” as their [implicit] vowels) Otherwise, what **Scuba\_Ben** said. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/5 "2007-04-11T14:51:47Z")
pro **nunc** iation ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/6 "2007-04-11T15:25:11Z")
It’s in Chronicles, yes? ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/7 "2007-04-11T15:45:22Z")
Yup, it’s biblical. A town and a person according to my research. Not modern at all. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/8 "2007-04-11T16:04:28Z")
OK, I just looked it up, its יעבץ. In Modern Hebrew, that’s a surname, usually transliterated Yavets and pronounced YAH-vetz. Not sure about the original name, though. I’ll have to try and hunt up a vowalized bible so I can see the actual pronunciation (its Chronicles I, ch. 4, verses 9-10 if anyone else wants to help). ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/9 "2007-04-11T17:41:57Z")
In Chronicles, it’s ya-betz, not vetz. I don’t have Hebrew with vowels on this computer, but it’s yud with a patach, ayin with a shva, bet (not vet) with a tzereh, and tzadi sofit. As an American, I leave the question of which syllable is accented to the Israelis! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/10 "2007-04-11T19:08:16Z")
Let’s note several things: 1. Many Hebrew names have been adopted into English and Anglicized. John Jacob Astor’s middle name was JAY-cubb, which would have left an Israelite or Jew, supposedly descended from his namesake, totally clueless unless he happened to know modern English. 2. There was a “classical” pronunciation espoused by Biblical scholars in which the letters corresponded more or less to Latin: Beth represented a bilabial stop /b/, Jodh (the “jot” of which neither one of it nor a tittle were to be lost) was a consonantal Y sound, etc. How accurate this was in terms of B.C. Hebrew, I cannot say for sure. Perhaps some pro linguist with a knowledge of Semitic sound shifts might help. Abraham’s grandson was yah-kob, written Iacob and later Jacob, hence the modern name, in this system. 3. Both Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews evolved separately divergent systems that do not match the “classical” usage. Jacob became Iakov, pronounced as in, “Lobsang, get your yak off my threshing floor; he’s eating all the grain.” When Chaim or Zev give “the right” Hebrew pronunciations of terms, they’re basing it on one (I think Ashkenazic) of these systems. Jabez, whose short account gave rise to a little book expounding the socalled Prosperity Gospel, would on a guess properly be “Jah-bezz” in English, and Yah-vezz in present Jewish use. ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/11 "2007-04-11T19:24:28Z")
IIRC this was how the Israeli media spelled the late [Senator Jacob Javits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Javits)’s surname in Hebrew. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/12 "2007-04-11T19:40:43Z")
[QUOTE=Martha] IIRC this was how the Israeli media spelled the late [Senator Jacob Javits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Javits)’s surname in Hebrew. [/QUOTE] 😕 There’s no Hebrew on that page. Maybe you want the [Hebrew Version](http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%A7%D7%91_%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%A5) of that page? In any case, the late senator’s name in Hebrew was יעקב יעבץ. There is (was? I’ve lost touch…) also a well-known historian of ancient Rome (whom I know personally through my father) named Zvi Yavets – he definitely pronounces it “YAH-vets” (but, as **Polycarp** notes, this was most likely due to the fact that he is an old-school _Ashkenazi_) And **Polycarp** – no argument with most of your post, but the original Hebrew has a _Tsade_ on the end of the name, so it would definitely end with a “ts” (like in tsunami) sound. Also, as **GilaB** has already noted, the “b” really is a “b” and not a “v”, and there’s an un-aspirated _a’yin_ in there, too – so it’s Ya’bets. Since nearly all biblical names (and many many Hebrew words in general) have the emphasis on the final syllable, I’ll stick my neck out here and semi-WAG that it would have originally been pronounced ya’-BETS ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/13 "2007-04-11T20:08:46Z")
Hm. I’ve read before that “jot” derives from “iota.” Anybody care to clarify? I’m at work with no OED in sight. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/14 "2007-04-11T20:11:33Z")
[QUOTE=Shoshana] Hm. I’ve read before that “jot” derives from “iota.” Anybody care to clarify? I’m at work with no OED in sight. [/QUOTE] Me neither, but **Polycarp** ’s quote sounds suspiciously like “_kotzo shel Yod_” [קוצו של יוד], which makes the derivation likely correct. ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/15 "2007-04-11T21:44:17Z")
[QUOTE=Noone Special] 😕 There’s no Hebrew on that page. Maybe you want the [Hebrew Version](http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%A7%D7%91_%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%A5) of that page? In any case, the late senator’s name in Hebrew was יעקב יעבץ. [/QUOTE] Thanks **Noone Special** - I linked to the English page for context rather than as a cite. I can’t type in Hebrew using this keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hebrew-pronounciation/399634/16 "2007-04-12T23:22:45Z")
Just found [this](http://www.behindthename.com/support/transcribe.php?type=HB&target=Ya%5E%22%3Abez%5E) while poking around, which seems to agree with what you were saying. Is that how Senator Jacob Javits’s surname is pronounced?