Ok, so it’s not quite as straightforward as I led you to believe. There’s one more thing I’m throwing at you to shake things up.
Sometimes the letter YUD will be next to a letter that has the EE vowel underneath it.
Example:
(REE) רִי
If the YUD doesn’t have a vowel under or next to it, then it becomes part of the EE vowel or in our case, EE vowel #2. There is only one syllable.
Think of it this way:
- In English, how would you pronounce the following? EE
- How do you pronounce EEY in English?
You should have made the same sound for numbers 1 and 2. That is why adding a YUD without a vowel to the EE vowel keeps the same sound.
(REE) or (REEy) רִי
Now, how would you pronounce this word “EEyAH” in English?
Answer: Two syllables… EE-yAHw
So, if a YUD follows a letter with an EE vowel underneath it and that YUD has a vowel underneath it as well –for example, the AH vowel — you would then pronounce the y of the YUD and the vowel underneath the YUD.
Here are a few examples of how you could write EE-yAHw in Hebrew:
אִיַ
עִיָ
אִיֲה