Pronunciation
Yeshua יֵשוּעַ . The Hebrew letter Yod י /j/ is vocalized with the Hebrew vowel tsere /e/ (a 'long' e like the first syllable of "neighbor" but not diphthongized) rather than with a shva /ə/ (as Y'shua) or segol /ɛ/ (Yesh-shua). The final letter Ayin ע is /ʕ/ (a rough, guttural sound not found in Greek or English), sometimes transcribed " ` " (Yeshua`). The final represents the "patach genuvah" ("furtive" patach), indicating that the consonant `ayin is pronounced after the a vowel, and the word's stress is moved to the middle syllable (the characteristics of the furtive patach can be seen in other words, such as רוח 'spirit'). Thus it is pronounced in Modern Hebrew, approximately ye-SHEW-ə.
The Hebrew name of the historical Jesus is probably pronounced 'Yeshua', although this is uncertain and depends on the reconstruction of several ancient Hebrew dialects. Talshir suggests, even though Galileans tended to keep the traditional spelling for 'Yehoshua' יהושוע with the letter Vav for /o/, they still pronounced the name similarly to the Judeans, as 'Yeshua', who tended to spell the name phonetically as ישוע, perhaps reducing the name thus: > >, with the /o/ palatizing (via 'dissimilation') before the /ʃ/.
Qimron describes the general linguistic environment of Hebrew dialects by the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The articulation of the /h/ (along with other guttural phonemes /ʔ/, /ħ/, and /ʕ/, as well as approximants /j/ and /w/) weakened significantly. Thus Hebrew pronunciations became less stable when two successive vowels were no longer separated by a consonant /h/. The speakers optionally either reduced the two vowels to a single vowel or oppositely expanded them to emphasize each vowel separately, sometimes forming a furtive glide in between, or . For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls spell the Hebrew word ראוי /rɔˈʔui̯/ ('seen') variously, recording both pronunciations: reduced ראו and expanded ראואי .
The Hebrew name 'Yehoshua' generally reduced to 'Yeshua', but an expanded 'Yehoshua' is possible, especially in Galilee whose traditional orthography possibly reflects this.
Read more about this topic: Yeshua (name)