Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Trevor Peterson" <06peterson AT cua.edu>]

Jason wrote:
> 
> My point is that, when I was in first-year Hebrew we had a 
> term for it: skinemleviy. That was to help us remember which 
> letters they were. In Seow's grammar (ref. below), it is 
> section VI.7 "Loss of the Strong Dagesh." It reads thus:
> 
> "The consonants W, Y, L, M, N, and Q, and the sibilants (S, 
> C, &, and $) frequently lose the strong /dagesh/ when they 
> are followed by a /shewa/. The precise rules for retaining or 
> omitting the /dagesh/ need not concern us now; at this stage 
> one needs only to know that the /dagesh/ may disappear."

Jason, you might want to look at a fuller discussion of this phenomenon.
I've already referred to Jouon. All these intro grammars are telling you
is to be aware that the dagesh might not appear. They do not address
what is going on when this happens.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics