Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Vadim Cherny <him AT vadimcherny.org>]

Quite simply, post-tonic is a vowel after stress. The stress can be 
primary or secondary.

hitlA.besh
hA.davAr

Without dagesh, post-tonic vowels tend to contract, as in English gather 
- gath'r. The Hebrew example is seghollate: cAlav - cal'v - calb - 
celev. Post-tonic vowel reduction is especially problematic in singing.


> Yitzhak Sapir wrote:
>
> Vadim has his own theory and I'm not sure he himself knows what post-
> tonic means.  I do not believe there is any way to reconcile his theory
> with modern scholarship into the Tiberian system.  As a Cantorial
> student, I suppose you'll have to deal with some two separate issues:
> 1) Modern pronunciation of the Tiberian tradition
> 2) The Tiberian system itself as explained by the Tiberians
>   

Can it be that you feel the pause which necessarily precedes 
non-aspirated consonants? You cannot pronounce nizcar in a single 
breath, but have to stop before the non-aspirated caf.
In a sense, non-aspirated begedkefet appeared by assimilating the 
preceding dagesh: niz.char - nizcar

> Yigal Levin wrote:

> I, BTW, certainly do "hear" (or maybe it's "feel") the Dagesh Hazaq 
in daily speach. That could be because I know that it's there.


Vadim Cherny