What about ΙΑΩ in Greek?

Greek texts of the New Testament universally render the Tetragrammaton in verse quotations as κύριος, reflecting the Jewish tradition of reading אֲדֹנָי “the Lord” when the Name appears in the text.

However, among the Greek translations of the texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the most common Greek way of rendering the Tetragrammaton was as ΙΑΩ (iota–alpha–omega). Syllable-initial iota behaves like the y in English and the yod in Hebrew. This means that ΙΑ in Greek would present יָ in Hebrew (like ya in English). Since there is no intervocalic h sound in Greek and the vowels alpha and omega do not form a diphthong, it is as if it represents יָהוֹ (Yāhố) or יָ֫הוֹ (Yā́hô).

We can easily get from יָהוֹ to יְהוֹ־◌◌֫ through accentuation shift for YHW-initial theophoric names.

Among the writings that survive from the Jewish residents of Elephantine, we find the form יהה. Scholars have suggested that יהה and יהו are to be pronounced the same. We can point the Elephantine form as יָהֹה Yāhṓ(h). From this, some have also suggested an ancient pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton as יָהוֹה Yāhố(h).

This is something that I keep in the back of my mind, but I still tend towards Yahve(h) that loses its heh through apocope, resulting in a consonant cluster that underwent resolution by making the vav into a vowel—o when it is pretonic and u when posttonic.

Both יָהוֹה Yāhố(h) and יַהְוֶה Yahve(h) have much more explanatory power than יְהוָֹה Yəhōvā́(h) as the earlier pronunciation of the Name.

𝕳𝖊𝖇𝖗𝖊𝖜 𝕳𝖆𝖗𝖊