Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dr Raoul Comninos" <capechurch AT gmail.com>]

I Quote Seow (Grammar, 66): "The meteg is a short vertical stroke
appearing under a consonant....It serves primarily to indicate a
secondary stress in a word." Seow goes on to document four other uses
but he does not indicate when the meteg indicates secondary stress.
Also, as far as I know, the mark before a sof pasuq is not a meteg but
a silluq and the two should not be confused. A silluq is an accent,
but the meteg is not. See also Muraoka pages 59ff.

Kind regards
Raoul Comninos


On 8/6/07, Jason Hare <jaihare AT gmail.com> wrote:
> I have never read anything that indicates this, and it has never had an
> effect in my understanding, reading, or pronunciation of the text of the
> Bible. I would be interested in hearing a source for this idea, but I don't
> think it is true that meteg functions in this way. It changes the length of
> a syllable from short to long. Example:
>
> חָכְמָה XfK-MfH (wisdom :: choch-MAH) > חָֽכְמָה Xf-K:MfH (she was wise ::
> cha-ch[e]MAH)
>
> It is called a bridle (meteg) because is opens the syllable. It does not
> indicate a secondary stress, for how can you have a secondary stress in a
> word of two syllables such as the one above? It only indicates vocal stress
> when joined to Sof Pasuk.
>
> In non-biblical text, the 'meteg' is sometimes used to indicate stress, but
> this is not part of the Biblical trope system. לָמַֽדְתִּי la-MAD-ti.
>
> Yours,
> Jason Hare
>
>
> On 8/6/07, Dr Raoul Comninos <capechurch AT gmail.com> wrote:
> > Although meteg is not an accent, it does serve, as far as I know, to
> > indicate secondary stress. This is its primary function, rather than
> > help distinguish qamets from qamets hatuf.
> >
> > Kind regards
> > Raoul Comninos
> >
> > On 8/5/07, Jason Hare < jaihare AT gmail.com> wrote:
> > > 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)
> > >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Dr Raoul Comninos
> > 93 Wagenaar Street
> > Monte Vista
> > 7460
> > South Africa
> > capechurch AT gmail.com
> > Fax: (086) 6544615
> >
>


-- 
Dr Raoul Comninos
93 Wagenaar Street
Monte Vista
7460
South Africa
capechurch AT gmail.com
Fax: (086) 6544615