Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jason Hare" <jaihare AT gmail.com>]

Dr. Comninos:

I went to the B-Hebrew archives and found the message that you were
talking about. Sorry that it was overlooked the first time. Here is my
own take on it:

> In my reading of the Hebrew Bible I am unsure when to read the metheg
> as a secondary stress. I have read through Gesenius' section on the
> metheg but found it unintelligible. Perhaps someone could provide me
> with some specific rules as to when it is not stressed. (Original Message)

The metheg is *not* an accent and does not receive a vocal stress.

When the metheg appears in the final position of a verse, it does so
with sof pasuk, which *is* an accent, and it is written on the tone
syllable. Otherwise, it serves to mark a syllable as open rather than
closed, which specifically affects the pronunciation of the vowel
kamats.

Hope this helps.


Jason Hare
Rishon leZion, Israel
(Oleh Chadash)