Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Henry Churchyard" <churchh AT usa.net>]

>> From: "M & E Anstey" <anstey AT raketnet.nl>

>> It is usually stated that a shewa after an accented syllable is
>> silent, but what of the case of irregularly stressed 3fs qal
>> perfects, such as found in Gen 19:38, 30:21; Joe 4:13; Mal 1:9, etc
>> which have the accent on the first syllable? Is this shewa then
>> silent or vocal, ie yaldah or yaledah, mal'ah or male'ah, haytah or
>> hayetah, etc? Does this rule about shewa after an accented syllable
>> apply in such a case? I can't anything clear about it in Gesenius,
  
> From: "Trevor & Julie Peterson" <spedrson AT thesimpsons.com>

> One principle that may apply is stated in Jouon-Muraoka (and
> elsewhere I'm sure): "In the state of Hebrew as recorded by the
> Naqdanim, the primary stress occurs only on the ultima . . . or on
> the penultima" (15b).  They don't give any exceptions to this
> principle (although it could be an oversight), which may suggest
> that the vocal shewa readings below are impossible.  Now that I've
> said that, my mind is going to keep haunting me with the nagging
> thought that I've probably seen antepenultimate stress before, but
> there you have it.  Trevor Peterson

I don't think that "shewa after an accented syllable is silent" is a
universally valid principle (see next paragraph).  But as discussed by
William Chomsky in his 1971 article "The Pronunciation of the
_Shewa_", in _Jewish Quarterly Review_ v. 62, pp. 88-94, sh@wa after a
long vowel + consonant is not automatically vocal (sh@wa in this
environment is only vocal in certain particular circumstances), so
that _yaaldhaa_ and _haaythaa_ would have silent _sh@wa_ regardless of
whether the "stress retraction" process of _n@siga_ (also called
_nasog 'ah.or_) has applied or not.

However, there are indisputable cases of antepenultimate stress, and
rather clear cases of vocal _sh@wa_ after the main-stressed syllable,
in the Biblical text.  For a list of antepenultimate and
quasi-antepenultimate stressed cases, see
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/antepnlt.txt

For a comprehensive list of forms affected by _n@siga_ a.k.a.
_nasog 'ah.or_ a.k.a. the Hebrew Rhythm Rule, see
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/nsigrhyr.txt

For a discussion of the environments of vocal vs. silent _sh@wa_, see
my dissertation, downloadable from http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/
(the section that discusses this is contained in the downloadable
excerpt which includes section 1.4 and chapter 4, if you don't want to
download the whole large thing).

--
Henry Churchyard   churchh AT usa.net   http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/