How language first developed is a great mystery. What gave rise to the first words signifying the reality of God? Breath launched a meaning from the heart that passed across the vocal chords, like a violin bow. A friend of mine who is a psychiatrist and writer in Greece, Fr. Vasileios Thermos, translated a line from one of his poems. “Every word we speak is a translation from an ancient manuscript that has been lost.”

Words are magic, revelations. They do not belong to us, but pass through us and we pass through them, translating the experiences of our flesh into meaning and returning to us, changing us according to their power. It is said among the Hasidic Jews, “The Spirit seeks a body through speech.” As one of the oldest original languages in existence, there is speculation that the word for God’s name might originally have arisen out of recognition of the sacredness and mystery of the very act of breathing itself, like a whisper, a sigh, a recognition of bearing life with each breath. All living beings breathe. So it may have originally been derived from something like the in breath, (whispered) “Yaaaahhhhh… outbreath, Waaaaayyyyyy” (whispered).

Stephen Muse : Treasure in Earthen Vessels