Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Peter wrote:

> But the question remains, is the remaining sheva silent or voiced? I 
> always assumed that in forms like B.IQ:$W. the sheva was 
> silent, and the 
> dagesh was dropped to correspond to this lack of 
> vocalisation.

According to the usual rules, the shva following a lengthened consonant
could not be silent. Jouon suggests that the dagesh was dropped because
even a vocal shva was too weak to sustain a full lengthening of the
preceding consonant.

> If it is 
> voiced, how can I decide whether sheva is voiced or not in 
> any word of 
> this pattern?

You would have to know whether the consonant should be lengthened. If
it's a verbal inflection, you would know based on parsing. Even if it's
not, you could generally tell by the preceding vowel.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics