Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yaakov Stein" <yaakov_s AT rad.com>]

Issac 

> I will write B for the hard Hebrew bet, V for a soft bet, and W for
waw, and recall, in connection with what you are saying,  
> the useful latter-day override to the BGDKP"T rule: HIT-XAVER [not
HIT-XAWER], 'he became friendly with someone',  
>  as opposed to HIT-XABER, he hitched himself to something', both from
the root XBR.
  
This is a nice example of how speakers of a language may understand its
"heart" better than its grammar.

I remember how in school the teachers would remind us to say "af al pi
xen" and not "ken" 
which was hard for native speakers of a language that had lost the more
complex elements of the bgdkpt rules.

Can you explain why the masoretes vocalized "my chamocha ... my khamocha
..." ?
I agree that it is a bit easier to allow the dagesh in the second (the
first is a makaf!)
but both should be chamocha.
 
Yaakov (J) Stein