Yeshu, Yehoshua, or Yeshua

[Paul Younan]

I've heard that some natives even have a hard time pronouncing the letter. Roth, in his alphabet table, describes ayin as being pronounced "ai or silent".

Hey Sniper

Hebrew, we must remember, is only a recently revived language as an everyday spoken language. It was dead for over 2,000 years since the diaspora began (except as a liturgical tongue.)

The Jews who stayed in the middle east (Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt) and spoke Aramaic, and later Arabic, pronounced Ayin correctly. Those who went to Poland, Germany and Russia lost the pronunciation over time.

Ayin is not silent, nor is it an "ai" sound. It's unfortunate when you watch videos on YouTube of messianic Jews trying to say Messiah's name, you hear Ye-shoo-wa. There is no -wa at the end of the name.

To me when I read Hebrew it is much more familiar than when I hear a modern Israeli speak it. The Ayin is foreign sounding to me. It sounds made up. So does the V sound for Waw. And the F sound for Peh. The S sound for Tau is pretty annoying too...I don't know what's with this "Shabbas" pronunciation, but it's like a loud screech to my ears. It's Shabbat, not Shabbas.

These are recent changes, unfortunately, and very sloppy.

+Shamasha