[Avodah] How to spell and pronounce Yishmael

[Jay F. Shachter]

> 
> The name "Yishmael" ....  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.
> 

I don't know that there are, as you say, "many others".  Shlumi'el,
and Gamli'el and Pag`i'el and Gaddi'el and `Ammi'el, do not belong on
this list (and Yisra'el certainly does not), because you're looking
for names where the 'el is preceeded by a schwa, unless you say that
the unvocalized yod has an implicit schwa.  Are there "many other"
names where the 'el is preceded by an explicit schwa, such as you
proposed would be "quite reasonable" for Yishma`el?  You mentioned
three.  How "many others" can you name?  I'm not sure that "Yishma`'el"
with a schwa underneath the `ayin would be any less weird than the one
that we have, inasmuch as there are, as you say, a couple of other
names with the same property:


> 
> 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.
> 

However, if you want to strengthen your argument for the weirdness of
"Yishma`el", you can point out that in all the other names you give
with "the same oddity as" Yishma`el, the letter with the tsere or the
segol is preceded by a schwa (and this is also true, in a sense, of
"Daniyyel", because the yod has a dagesh xazaq), and in "Yishma`el"
that is not the case.  So maybe "Yishma`el" is as weird as you say it
is, but for reasons that you did not state.


               Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
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