Is there someone who speaks Hebrew well who can comment on this?

Question

This statement was posted by a reader of YnetNews.com:

"Actually, the name gog as spelled in the orignal Hebrew has no dagesh in either gimmel. If you play with the soft g sound,and add an r you get...........
GEORGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It seems like a bit of a stretch to insert the "r" sound, making "Gog" read "George." Could someone give me a phonetic spelling of the correct pronunciation of Gog?

The full text of the article may be found here: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3338175,00.html

This comment is # 58 in the "Talkback" list.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The connection between "Gog" and "George" does sound unlikely and artificial, but it is not impossible.

First of all, we have no idea what Gog means. It could be either a name of a person or a title (like a khalif, or a military leader).
Secondly, it is hard to know the exact pronunciation of the word, as Modern Hebrew is pronounced differently than the Ancient one.

It is written "גּוֹג ": a "g" sound with a Dagesh (emphasis) [Gimel Dgushah:גּ ], the vowel "o" [Vav: וֹ] and the consonant "g" without a Dagesh [Gimel: ג].
While in Modern Hebrew there is no difference between an emphasized "g" and a non-emphasized "g", the Ancient pronunciation states that a non-emphasized "g" should be pronounced "gh" (a deep throaty "r" sound, sort of like the French "r", or the Arabic "gh").
So "gog" should be really pronounced "gogh" (gor).

Another way of pronunciation is the Arabic one.
In the 7th century, Islam was established in the Arabian Peninsula and it derived lots of its concepts from the Hebrew scripts. Gog in Arabic is pronounced "juj" (جوج), and it might be the original pronunciation of the Hebrews as well.

If you combine the two possible options of pronunciation, you will get the word "George". It is possible that the word "Gog" is actually the Hebrew pronunciation of the Greek name "Georgios".

Answer 2

Ynetnews Hebrew

Answer 3

Gog in Hebrew is Gog - גוג
unless by what they say it's actually pronaunced joj - 'ג'וג
but in that case there needs to be a little '
after the Hebrew letter Gimmel... ג
and George in Hebrew is 'ג'ורג
so you can see how they made
the'short cut' to their conclusion...

Answer 4

Luv Thy Neighbor, all I can say is Psshhhhhh....... :)