Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Polycarp66 AT aol.com]

In a message dated 1/13/2002 12:10:06 AM Eastern Standard Time, hebrew2day AT hotmail.com writes:


> In the 3rd person plural (M or F) perfect tense how do you tell if the 
> vowel is long or short, or if the shva is silent or vocal?
> I know the functions of the shva, but when the vowel is a gamets(before
> conjugated) does it change?


Example:

Gen 1.21 $fR:CW.  
Since a syllable must begin on a consonant (unless it's a shureq), and since there is no metheg to indicate the beginning of a new syllable this must be divided

$fR:     |      CW.

The accent here is Milra' (on the last syllable).  This means that the "f" is in a closed and UNACCENTED syllable.  It therefore must be hames-qatuph.  

gfsomsel