Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Trevor,

<snip>
> > An /apparenlty/ open syllable. That is like asking why the
> > chet takes implicit doubling and can keep the syllable before
> > it "apparently" open. The fact is... it's a functionally
> > closed syllable.
>
> In other words, the chet is in some sense doubled.

But, who would pronounce a doubled chet? LOL
I think the same is true of the other letters. Would you want to pronounce a
doubled shin or kuf without following it with a (real) vowel?? I think that
is the explanation for the loss of dagesh-eliminating the cacophony.

> > Perhaps pronouncing the double consonant
> > without a vowel following was a pain, and for euphonic
> > reasons it was dropped (even as stated earlier in this
> > thread). That makes perfect sense to me.
>
> And pronouncing alef at the end of a syllable apparently became a pain.
> The difference is that the loss of alef resulted in a vowel shift to fit
> an open syllable. What's the difference?

Usage. ;-)

Shalom,
Jason