Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

Well, in your example, if you were to remove the dagesh from /haššomer/, 
then how do you determine interrogative heh vis-a-vis definite article, 
since the definite article vis-a-vis interrogative heh is determined by 
the presence/absence of dagesh? Sure, you can resort to semantic 
grounds, but what is the formal indicator? It is not simply the vowel 
marking, but the presence or absence of the dagesh. If you're going to 
remove the dagesh, then you might as well remove the preceding vowel, 
because it's orthographic realisation is determined by the presence of 
the dagesh, which is in turn realised by the semantics of the phrase. 
Same issue with /wayyiqqtol/ vis-a-vis /weyiqtol/ etc.

Regards,
David Kummerow.


> Yitzhak,
> Sorry that I miss understood your post, and assumed you meant something
> that you didn't.
>
> Everyone,
> For some reason the answers that have been posted are not addressing my
> question. So clearly I am not being understood. So I will try to ask my
> question again, but in a different way.
>
> Does the absence/presence of the dagesh MARK alone change the
> form/aspect/state/meaning/translation/etc of the word?  I am NOT
> concerned with the effects it has on the pronunciation of the word!
> I repeat  my question has NOTHING to do with pronunciation - but rather
> the relationship between the dagesh MARK and its lone effect on the
> meaning of a word.
>
> If there are other GRAPHIC changes to the word along with the dagesh
> MARK change (such as a vowel MARK change) - then it does NOT apply to my
> question - as this is an additional graphic change to the word.
>
> For example:
>
> <H:A/$OM"R> - Interrogative / Qal Participle Masculine Singular
> <HA/$.OM"R> - Article / Qal Participle Masculine Singular
>
> In this example the GRAPHIC presence/absence of the dagesh has no effect 
> at all on the meaning of the word - as both words are Qal Participle 
> Masculine Singular.
>
>
> Are there any instances in the Biblical text where the 
> addition/subtraction of the  dagesh MARK change the meaning of the word.
>
> Another way to ask it:
> If I were to remove all the dagesh MARKS from the Biblical text, will
> their absence in anyway hinder/reduce my ability to translate the text?
> Or does the dagesh MARKS contain data vital to the translation of a word?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> B"H
> John Steven