From which Greek dialect did Hebrew borrow *awēr* "air"?

Question

The Hebrew for "air" is אוויר avir, earlier awīr or awēr. This is obviously a borrowing of the Greek word that appears in Attic as ἀήρ, and would be ἀϝήρ in other dialects. The Hebrew word must have been borrowed from a Greek dialect that retained intervocalic digamma, but which dialect?

Klein's etymological dictionary of Hebrew simply says "from Greek" without specifying further. There were numerous dialects in which intervocalic digamma survived. Do we know, or can we plausibly guess, which dialect was the source of this loanword?

Answer 1

The Greek ἀήρ seems to have entered (post-Biblical) Hebrew via Aramaic ʼwwyr. Syriac Aramaic also has the more Greek-looking form ʼʼr. The replacement of an intervocalic glottal stop by a semi-vowel (here: ʼāʼer > ʼāwer) is typical of Aramaic, and other Semitic languages.