THE ORIGINAL PRONUNCIATION OF THIS NAME WAS FORGOTTEN
The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories, published by Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts in 1991 is a late edition of one of the most respected names in the field of etymology.
The lack of confirmation for the original pronunciation of YHWH is pointedly discussed. Yahweh is given as one among "various possible pronunciations" of this name. This particular pronunciation is just one of "several reconstructions of this word."
The quotation only serves to reinforce the fact, oft repeated on this web site, that no one knows with any degree of certainty how YHWH was originally pronounced. All who lay claim to having some special knowledge of the "original" and "true" pronunciation of this name are only fooling themselves and others.
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THE ORIGINAL PRONUNCIATION OF THIS NAME WAS FORGOTTEN
"Many religions prohibit the utterance of the true names of their particular deities. For instance, out of reverence or for fear of desecration, the Jews about 300 B.C. ceased to pronounce the divine proper name. Because their language was written without any indication of the vowels, the original pronunciation of this name was forgotten in time, though the consonants continued to be used in written texts. These four consonants, which in English we transliterate as YHWH, came to be known as the tetragrammaton, from the Greek meaning ‘having four letters’. When vowels began to be transcribed in Hebrew several reconstructions of this word were suggested and various possible pronunciations of the tetragrammaton have given us such words as Jehovah, Yahweh, Jahveh, and other similar spellings for the name of God."
