Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Vadim Cherny <vadimcherny AT gmail.com>]

Rashi suggests that hey interrogative produces dagesh before shwa. He  
cannot be correct on this because in Gen18:17 and  27:38 hey  
interrogative before shwa causes no dagesh. So he treats them as  
exceptions.

My hypothesis is this: as can be seen in definite articles, ha-  
generally produces dagesh. This is due to the secondary stress on ha-.  
Interrogative clauses are an exception to this rule because the  
intonation places accent on the final word of interrogative clause,  
and ha- loses its secondary accent. In Num13:20, hashmenah hi im raza?  
lacks a stress on  the final word typical of questioning clauses due  
to abnormal use of im.

Vadim Cherny