Yeshu, Yehoshua, or Yeshua

[Paul Younan]

:

Hi Brother Paul, How about the letter "a" at the end? is this for the "ain"? I see it left off many times. Like Eshu or Esho or Yeshu.

Hi Chuck

The final "a" sound is there in the pronunciation if you listen carefully. It's more of a guttural stop, than a full letter sound like other consonants.

It's hard to explain, but Aleph an Ayin aren't vowels. They are consonants.

The Ayin, especially, is a difficult sound to make and recognize. In modern Hebrew, it's indistinguishable from the vowel "a". But that's from the influence of european languages on Jews.

The original pronunciation can be found with languages like Arabic and Aramaic.

You can make the Ayin sound by touching the back of your tongue to your tonsils. Sorry, that's the best way I can explain it. Like I said, it's more of a guttural stop than an actual sound.

+Shamasha