Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Pere Porta <pporta7 AT gmail.com>]

Dear list,

at gathering patterns that consist of TWO root letters + suffix -NY, I got
the result of 19 items that conform the entire list.

Now, 17 of them have NY, so simply, while there are two that have a dagesh
in letter nun:

1. Preposition MIN + NY gives MIMENY (Jdg 7:17), whith dagesh in both the
medial mem and the nun.

2. Verbs ayin-waw having nun for their last root consonant (such as LDYN, to
judge, Ecc 6:10) take a dagesh in the nun of the suffix as well: DNNY, he
judged me (Gn 30:6).

At a first glance one would think that, quite simply, a dagesh is put in the
N of the suffix whenever the basic word ends in nun by itself, as it is the
case for 1. and 2.

But...... facts say this does not run this way, witnesses the first word in
Ps 51:3 and a quite similar word in Gn 33:11.

Would there be a good reason for this apparently ununderstable behaviour of
lettern N of the suffix -NY as regards taking or not taking dagesh?

-- 
Pere Porta
(Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain)