# Greece יוון



## Clara_

Hello , שלום

I wonder why Greece is called יוון in Hebrew.
Does anyone know the origin of this name?

I couldn't find the information on the Internet.

Thank you.


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## Flaminius

Hi,

Hebrew is in alignment with other eastern languages (Arabic, Sanskrit, Persian) deriving the word for Greece from an ancient form of Ionia.  This page mentions that the Mycenaean Greek reconstruction for Ionians is Iawones.  The intervocalic -w- has been lost in Greek but kept in Hebrew word for Greece.

See a WR thread for other languages.


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## origumi

Also:

As a figure, Yavan יון son of Japeth son of Noah is mentioned in Genesis 10:2 and 1 Chronicles 1:5-7. Note that Genesis is said to be at least as old as Greek presence in their current territory (including western Asia Minor). Later biblical references are found in the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, but these are more historical and therefore should comply with the explanation by Flaminius above.

From a different direction, the "Yavana" kingdom (or "Yona" further in the west) appears in the Indian epic literature with many theories about its relation to Greece. In Sanskrit "Ayonija" is some kind of super-humans, those who were not born from a woman.


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## arbelyoni

In this context it is also interesting to mention that there are three more modern countries which there Hebrew names are derived from the Bible:
1) Egypt: מצרים [Mitzrayim]- akin to Arabic "Missr". Ancient and modern Egypt are the same place.
2) France: צרפת [Tzarfat]- Originally a town by Sidon (1 Kings 17:9), in later times it was identified with France for their similar sound ("Franzza" according to Rashi).
3) Spain: ספרד [Sfarad]- Originally Sardis of Lydia in Asia Minor ("Sfard" in Lydian), mentioned in Obadiah 1:20. Jonathan Ben Uzziel, who translated the Prophets to Aramaic, translated Sfarad in this passage as "Espamia"- a distant place. In later times Espamia was identified with Spain for their similar sound (Ispania). Another off topic: Spain's name in English as well as Spanish is derived from the Hebrew-Phoenician name that the Carthaginians coined for Iberia: I-shfania, "Island of the Hyrax".​


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## origumi

arbelyoni said:


> In this context it is also interesting to mention that there are three more modern countries which there Hebrew names are derived from the Bible.


 
Interesting. Also Lebanon לבנון, Jordan ירדן, Yemen תימן, Persia פרס, India הודו, and even China סין.


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## Ander

Clara_ said:


> Hello , שלום
> 
> I wonder why Greece is called יוון in Hebrew.
> Does anyone know the origin of this name?
> 
> I couldn't find the information on the Internet.
> 
> Thank you.



There are countries which are named in some languages by the region which is near the speakers of those languages.

For example the region of Germany which is near France is the Alemanic region, which was populated by the Alamans, a Germanic tribe. The name Alamans was taken by the French to designate the whole of Germany.

The Greek speaking region which was nearest to the Hebrews was that part of Asia Minor called Ionia. So they took that name for the Greek people and their country.


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## Linguaphile182

In Hebrew, certain letters are called _mater lectionis_, which means they can function both as vowels and consonants. For instance, yodh (י) can represent "y" or "i", and waw (ו) can represent "w", "o", or "u". The ancient Hebrew יון (note the one waw) is read as "Yawan", with yodh acting as "y" and waw acting as "w". Javan ("Yawan" in English) was a son of Japheth and a grandson of Noah; he first appears in Genesis 10:2. Javan was said to have fathered the Greek people. The Ionians were the first Greeks the ancient Israelites encountered, so Ionia (Ἰωνία) came to represent all of Greece. Incidentally, Ionia in Hebrew can be spelled יון if yodh acts as "i" and waw acts as "o" (and, of course, the -ία is dropped). This makes sense, when we remember that the Ionians were said to have come from Javan.

However, in modern Hebrew, the word for Greece is spelled יוון. Why is the waw doubled here? Perhaps to emphasize the fact that the waw acts as a vowel? While it does function as a consonant, it is still odd, because a doubled waw in modern Hebrew normally represents the foreign sound "w" (in modern Hebrew, waw represents the sound "v"; the scholarly name has not caught up with the times). Oddly enough, יון in modern Hebrew means ion (the charged particle), and has nothing to do with Ionia (or Javan). 

Hebrew may seem complicated to speakers of Indo-European languages; the Hebrew and Greek mindsets are different. But this should not discourage you from discovering Hebrew's divine elegance.

I hope this post was helpful and not too confusing.


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## origumi

Linguaphile182 said:


> ... it is still odd ...


I don't think there's anything odd about modern spelling of יוון. Compare הווה, שווה, רוויה, תקווה, ציווה and many more words.


> ... Hebrew's divine elegance ...


This is off-topic of course, yet such claim (the elegance part, I wouldn't discuss divinity here) requires some sort of justification. Is Hebrew more elegant than any other language? how?


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## amikama

Linguaphile182 said:


> However, in modern Hebrew, the word for Greece is spelled יוון. Why is the waw doubled here? Perhaps to emphasize the fact that the waw acts as a vowel?


According to the new rules of spelling without nikkud (1960's), a vav functioning as a consonant is doubled, unless it's the first or last letter of the word. As a vowel, vav is never doubled.



> While it does function as a consonant, it is still odd, because a doubled waw in modern Hebrew normally represents the foreign sound "w" (in modern Hebrew, waw represents the sound "v"; the scholarly name has not caught up with the times).


In modern Hebrew, a consonantal vav (doubled or not) represents both the sounds "v" and "w" (in foreign words). The spelling rule cited above is applied no matter which sound it represents, even in foreign words:
טל*וו*יזיה - tele*v*ision
*ו*יליאם - *W*illiam (the first letter of the word, thus not doubled)


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