[Avodah] How to spell and pronounce Yishmael

[Akiva Miller]

.
The name "Yishmael" means "G-d heard". I don't even need Rashi for that;
Bereshis 16:11 says it explicitly. If so, I think it would be quite
reasonable for the Ayin to have a shva, and the Aleph to have a tzere,
forming a compound word: Yish-ma*-el, God-heard.  That's the usual way to
construct this kind of name. Betzal-el, Mahalal-el, Nesan-el, Sh'lumi-el,
and many others - not to mention Yisra-el - put the tzere on the Aleph.

But that's not how Yishmael is spelled. The Ayin gets the tzere, and the
Aleph has no vowel at all, making it silent. The correct pronunciation is
Yish-ma-*el.

Besides Yishmael, there are a very few other exceptions. Daniel has the
tzere on the yud, and Yechezkel has it on the kuf, the same oddity as
Yishmael.
Jezreel has no tzere at all, but it does have a segol, and it is on the
ayin. [For those unfamiliar with the name of the valley, it is spelled yud
zayin resh ayin aleph lamed.]

>From what I can tell, those first 3 names are the only words in all of
Tanach which end in tzere-aleph-lamed.
And Jezreel is the only word in the entire Tanach which ends in
segol-aleph-lamed,
This contrasts with the many many many which end with aleph-tzere-lamed.
Any ideas what they might have in common?

Akiva Miller
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