Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Fri, Jul 2, 2010 at 6:17 PM, Pere Porta wrote:
> Concerning noun "yesha', salvation (Ps 20:7) and noun "zera'", seed (Gn
> 47:23), a student asks why the first has tsere in the first syllable while
> the
> latter has segol.
>
> What good reason could we give him for this difference? Maybe the presence
> of resh in "zera'" would be a sufficient reason?

If you look at the nouns with suffixed pronouns you will see they have 
different
vowels:

ישע - gives ישעו in Ps 85:10 with a hirik
זרע - gives זרעו in Gen 1:11 with a patah

The difference then is in the root form.  The noun form of seed is qatl 
whereas
the noun form of salvation is qitl.  In the independent non-suffixed form, the
qatl formed a seghol in the first syllable whereas the qitl formed a tsere.  
In
both cases the normal second vowel of seghol became patah due to the
guttural.

Yitzhak Sapir