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A nagging grammar/pronunciation/BIBLE issue/question:

This concerns a final vowel in a word such ruach/רוּחַ (spirit). WHY am I taught to say ruach not rucha? It seems to me with the "rule" that final vowels such as these being pronounced before the consonant instead of after makes dipthongs in Biblical Hebrew, I have never yet seen a rational explanation given for this rule. I wonder if there are any ancient transliterations of the Hebrew Bible into other languages that may shed some light on this.

jahhouse
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    Try saying it without the vowel at all. Like the word יְהוֹשֻׁע Yehoshu'. It's difficult. The "patach" there is not a full vowel, but just a half-vowel to help in saying the guttural final letter (ה or ח or ע). – Double AA Jan 04 '16 at 16:12
  • It is a diphthong. – Seth J Jan 04 '16 at 16:22
  • @DoubleAA can you cite a source that says that? Not that I dont believe you, ive just never heard that before – Aaron Jan 05 '16 at 03:34
  • כִּי-אָז אֶהְפֹּךְ אֶל-עַמִּים, שָׂפָה בְרוּרָה, לִקְרֹא כֻלָּם בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה, לְעָבְדוֹ שְׁכֶם אֶחָד. צְפַנְיָה – jahhouse Jan 07 '16 at 00:30
  • I am not saying I am right or wrong one way or the other, just something I would like to understand because of Zephaniah, and the Masoretic text, among other things. For the example of יְהוֹשֻׁעַ This could be said either way since the Ayin is actually pronounced by Mizrahi jews as the Arabic ع. This sound uses the epiglottis/pharyngeal region of the throat, like a vocalized swallowing. Now this throat constriction modifies the vowel sound, this order can be two ways 1. vowel-> constriction, or 2. constriction->vowel. – jahhouse Jan 07 '16 at 00:50
  • So if I came up with a new name for a child for example that put the Patach sound after the Ayin sound, this could be written in Hebrew even with the standard rule as יְהוֹשֻׁעאַ – jahhouse Jan 07 '16 at 00:50
  • @jahhouse יהושע is ye-ho-shua' with the constriction after the patach. If you wanted to have the constriction before the vowel, consider the word ישועה (salvation) which is ye-shu-'a. In that case the vowel is a full vowel, not just the half vowel to help with saying the guttural sound. – Double AA Jan 07 '16 at 00:55
  • @ Double AA, nice example! however I still am in doubt as to the reason for the rule. However with contrasting examples (like minimal pairs in phonetics), it is obvious the scriptures do contrast this phonetically either way. – jahhouse Jan 07 '16 at 02:34
  • I noticed that there are other pronunciation questions that are not closed. I find that my interest in Zephaniah, of God's own interest in this subject, to not be enough כִּי-אָז אֶהְפֹּךְ אֶל-עַמִּים, שָׂפָה בְרוּרָה, לִקְרֹא כֻלָּם בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה, לְעָבְדוֹ שְׁכֶם אֶחָד. צְפַנְיָה My feeble vote goes to reopen this question. – jahhouse Jan 09 '16 at 17:55
  • In my continued meditation and reading scripture I have another small addition: So I notice that the Shiwa is fairly common under the last syllable. Knowing that the last syllable usually takes the stress in Hebrew, and that the Shiwa shifts the stress, I can see some use in a vowel under a final consonant. This reminds me of Steven Pinkers research/comments on "irregular verbs" which break normative patterns, which in that case basically is to preserve some sort of phonotatics/phonetic harmony. – jahhouse Jan 16 '16 at 22:18
  • I was reading a paper on http://becker.phonologist.org/papers/becker_hebrew_plurals_texas.pdf about irregular Hebrew verb patterns as well which is very interesting, and seems related to this topic of purpose in grammatical/phonological rules. So though my original question is not answered, I thought I would post this just in case someone with more information and the inclination to comment might help answer the original issue. – jahhouse Jan 16 '16 at 22:18
  • Still closed I see, oh well. So I found old transcriptions that I can not read, but theoretically could address this issue. It is very old Karaite transcriptions of Hebrew Bible text into Arabic script. Here it is: https://ia700401.us.archive.org/27/items/cu31924091208409/cu31924091208409.pdf – jahhouse Jan 24 '16 at 07:30
  • I was asked to provide the English for the Hebrew scripture I quoted in another thread. The quote above is from Zephaniah, For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent. – jahhouse Jan 30 '16 at 23:51

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