[Avodah] Ancient Ashkenazi Hebrew

[S.]

From: R' Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org>
> The original question was what was minhag Ashkenaz? Was ayin always
> silentsince we settled there? And if not, which sound did it have. I
> pointedout that the Yiddishism "Yankef" points to a memory of an n-like
> ayin.

I used to incline to that view, but I'm not sure it works, not without
any evidence. First of all, how long did they say "Yankev"? It makes a
huge difference if it began in the 1700s in Poland or in the 1000s in
Rhineland, and we can't assume anything without showing it. If there
is such evidence (transliterations in another language, more outright
discussion, etc.) I'd love to hear it.

Secondly, we see that (some?) Ashkenazim had a problem with two pasachs
in the beginning of a word, second letter ayin, hence "mayriv," "tayna,"
and so forth. Interestingly, the other thing Ashkenazim do is remove
one altogether when it's an aleph, hence "bal" instead of "ba'al" and so
forth. Following this pattern, Ya'akov should have became "Yaykov" (or,
really, "Yaykev). Say it out loud. I daresay "Yaykev" doesn't work as well
as "mayriv." It's not so difficult to see how it changed into something
sounding more like "Yankev" for ease of pronunciation. Unfortunately I
do not know the proper linguistic terminology, but I'm fairly certain
the difference between yud-ayin with two pasachs and other consonants
followed by an ayin can be explained in a reasonable way. So it is at
least possible that "Yankev" has nothing to do with a faintly preserved
ayin per se, and is just the exact same thing as "mayriv" only adjusted
for pronunciation. Of course since there is apparently a difference
between what Ashkenazim did with letters in such a pattern, between
an aleph and an ayin, perhaps *that* - "mayriv - is the residue of a
vocalized ayin.

S.