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

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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Initial "Beged Kefet" consonants always have a dagesh?
  • Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 08:04:53 +0200

The rule is that not only after a maqaf, but also after a "connecting" cantilation mark, if the first of two words ends in an "open syllable" (that is, with a vowel or a mater lectionis), the initial letter of the second word will remain without a dagesh even if it is a BGDKPT. The reason for this is purely phonetic - very much like the French not pronouncing many final letters, unless they are followed by an initial vowel. There are, of course, exceptions.
In the prayer book, those passages that quote biblical verses, quote them as the appear in the Bible. Other passages, especially poetry, often use "semi-biblical" spelling. Modern Hebrew usually ignores this rule.

Yigal
----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher V. Kimball" <mail AT cvkimball.com>
To: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 3:05 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Initial "Beged Kefet" consonants always have a dagesh?



"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?

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