Yeshua vs. Eshua

[Paul Younan]

Shlama Akhay,

I have been asked on many an occasion what the proper pronunciation of Meshikha's name is. (YES-SHOE-AH vs. EE-SHOE-AH)

First of all, I have to make clear that the name is Hebrew and not Aramaic. How Hebrew names are pronounced in the various Aramaic dialects over the centuries has changed.

For instance, my last name "Younan" is the Imperial Aramaic version of the Hebrew "Yona" ("Jonah", or "Dove"). In Imperial Assyrian Aramaic, there was a tendency to append an "n" to masculine names that ended with an "ah" sound. Therefore, you have the Aramaic "Younan" for the Hebrew "Youna."

Likewise, a literaty convention developed in late Eastern Aramaic in regards to the invention of vowel markings. Several centuries after Meshikha, the Assyrians invented the vowel marking system to supplement the previously vowel-less alphabet (it only consisted of the standard 22 consonants.) They invented the "Eastern" diacretic marking system, which the Masoretes then used to create the vowel markings for Hebrew.

One of these changes was to the letter Yudh. This consonant, previously pronounced exclusively as "y", came to also serve as the vowel "ee" (as in "feet") when a dot is placed below it. The technical name for it is Khwasa (see Lesson 33 on http://www.assyrianlanguage.com)

Over time, Assyrians began to pronounce the name of "Yeshua" as "Eeshua" (or, as commonly spelled, "Eshoo") because they began to insert the Khwasa underneath the initial Yudh in his name. Although the name must have been pronounced this way by the Assyrians before the invention of the vowel markings, this is in all probability just a late Eastern convention, and it is not likely to have been pronounced this way during Meshikha's lifetime.

Admittedly, there is no way we can be sure what his name was pronounced like because at the time there was no vowel system in place. All we have is witnesses written with consonants only.

However, given the accepted Hebrew pronunciation of the name over the centuries, and the fact that Western Aramaic-Speaking Christians (like the Maronites) also pronounce it "Y", I believe the name should be pronounced "Yeshua" and that the "Eshua" pronunciation is merely a dialectical difference that evolved over the centuries among Assyrian Christians.