Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jason Hare" <jason AT hareplay.com>]

Peter,

> I am sure that if there had been a real pronunciation distinction here
> the Masoretes would have found a way to indicate it. All this
> half-lengthening stuff sounds like 19th century German
> over-classification (and it does come from Gesenius).

The normal way of indicating whether it should be a vocal shva in such
situations is the rafe (a straight dash just above the letter, looking like
a top-side patach). At least, that's how it is used in the Artscroll Siddur.
I think that in Yiddish, the rafe represents a soft (aspirated) consonant of
the BGDKPT letters (since all things were without nikkud). In fact, I do
think this would be like a "medial sh'va," which is slightly vocalized. I
don't think it makes any difference in pronunciation for normal folk. Like
they argue on the B-Greek list, does pronunciation of the ancient language
matter so much? If so, why not follow modern pronunciation rules, which (que
yo sepa) would make this vocal for all real purposes?

All the best,
Jason