[b-hebrew] About Dagesh's

Isaac Fried if at math.bu.edu
Tue May 27 07:48:55 EDT 2008


1. Well known biblical exceptions for words starting with BB, BP and KK are 
worth calling attention to:

עַל-לִבּוֹ בְּבֹאוֹ אֶל הַקֹּדֶשׁ Exodus 28: 29.

וַיְהִי בְּבוֹאוֹ וַיִּתְקַע בַּשּׁוֹפָר Judges 3:27

וְאִכָּבְדָה בְּפַרְעֹה וּבְכָל חֵילוֹ Exodus 14:4

הֲלֹא כְּכַרְכְּמִישׁ כַּלְנוֹ Isaiah 10:9

2. Indeed, few vestiges to soft initial B, K, P are left us now 
in: )AXAREY-KEN, LIPNEY-KEN, )AP-AL-PI-KEN, LO)-KEN? And LO)-KLUM. On the 
other hand B, K, P are hard now [by sanction of the Hebrew Academy] even 
following the close )IY-, ‘no-, un- dis-’, LO)-, ‘no, not’, and DU-, ‘double’, 
as in )IY-B.HIR-UT , ‘lack of clarity’, LO)-K.A$IR, ‘unfit’, DU-K.IWUNI, 
‘bidirectional’.

3. Abolishing the dagesh altogether from Hebrew script would clear the 
orthography of a redundant mark and simplify the grammar.



Isaac Fried, Boston University



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Yaakov Stein" <yaakov_s at rad.com>
To: <b-hebrew at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 25, 2008 7:05 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] About Dagesh's


>
>> ' Ve'avarti VE'eretz mitzrayim ba'lailah hazeh, ve-hikeiti
> CHOL-bechor....'
>
>> I was wondering if anybody could explain why the usual dagesh-ed form
> is not used!
>
> The rule is very simple actually. The dagesh is dropped after an open
> syllable.
>
> This is always the case after an open syllable in the middle of a word,
> and is also the case after open syllables at the end of the previous
> word
> when the two words are "connected" (i.e. the previous word has a
> connecting cantillation mark).
>
> Yaakov (J) Stein
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew 



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