Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Petr Tomasek <tomasek AT etf.cuni.cz>]

On Sun, Jan 03, 2010 at 10:05:04AM -0800, Uri Hurwitz wrote:
>   As mentioned, there is different pointing under the 'he'.
> 
>   Under the interrogative 'he' is a 'hataf patah' as in the examples noted 
> in Genesis 4:7 or Job 10 etc.
> 
>   The pointing under the article 'he' is a 'patah'.
> 
>   Historically before the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible was written 
> down, the proto-Semitic article must have had two letters in Hebrew just as 
> the Arabic retains two letters in the article to the present day. 
> Eventually, the second letter of the article assimilated with the first 
> letter of the noun which it modified. A trace of this assimilation was 
> preserved in the pronounciation still heard by the Masoretes and thus the 
> 'dagesh' in the letter following the 'he'. Of course, if the first letter 
> of the Hebrew word is a gutteral different pronounciation occurs. 

<provocation>
And now, tell me, why there is no dagesh with the interrogative particle ;-)
</provocation>

(Yes, I'm talking about the fact that the arabic interrogative particle
is "hal", هل  ...)

:=P

-- 
Petr Tomasek <http://www.etf.cuni.cz/~tomasek>
Jabber: butrus AT jabbim.cz
SIP: butrus AT ekiga.net