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[b-hebrew] Initial "Beged Kefet" consonants always have a dagesh?

From: "Christopher V. Kimball" <mail AT cvkimball.com>
To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [b-hebrew] Initial "Beged Kefet" consonants always have a dagesh?
Date: Wed, 05 Oct 2005 21:05:14 -0400

"Beged Kefet" letters (bet, gimmel, dalet, kaf, pe, tav) are letters that change their pronunciation when they have a dagesh.

According to a spelling rule: "Every time a Beged Kefet letter begins a word, it has a dagesh."

Alas, this doesn't seem to be the case much of the time, at least in prayerbook Hebrew.
The "word" in the above rule probably means a prosodic word so that in A maqaf B the first letter in B wouldn't have a dagesh.

Is this rule an over-generalization or particular only to biblical Hebrew?

[b-hebrew] Initial "Beged Kefet" consonants always have a dagesh?, Christopher V. Kimball, 10/05/2005
- Re: [b-hebrew] Initial "Beged Kefet" consonants always have a dagesh?, Yigal Levin, 10/06/2005