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

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  • From: "Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>
  • To: "Dr. Joel M. Hoffman" <joel AT exc.com>, <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Initial "Beged Kefet" consonants always have a...
  • Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2005 21:58:15 +0300

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.

It's not a prosodic rule. It's not hard to find examples in Tanach of
the same prosody with different trope types, and, hence, different
BEGED KEFET behavior. The Masoretes invented this arbitrary
inter-word rule (and, actually, for all we know, invented the entire
BEGED KEFET rule).

The people who painstakingly marked every minutest thing in the Tanakh invented a rule, huh?
They just wrote down what they actually heard. And, of course, they heard strengthening (loss of aspiration) after a stop. And, of course, anyone concerned with distinct pronunciation in singing (cantillation) introduces stop between the words to avoid concatenation and subsequent loss of first consonant in a cluster.

natan bakar -> nata nbakar (nata 'bakar) -> natan.bakar

This is the same process as created intra-word dagesh kal:

ni-zcar - ni'car -> niz.car

This makes clear why maqef+vowel eliminates dagesh: consonant clusters appear, no blurring of the first consonant, nothing to prevent. Since the first word in maqef constructs loses accent, its final vowel is almost unaccented, and there is no post-tonic gemination (dagesh hazak), either.

Vadim Cherny




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