Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Hi Pere,

 

The first syllable is not a closed syllable. Ask any competent Torah-reader.
The proper pronunciation is a-me-ru, sha-le-xu. Were it a closed syllable,
the qamats would be a qamats qatan, and the pronunciation would be om-ru,
shol-xu etc.

 

Now, why the Mesoretes used identical signs for a long a and for a short o
is another question.

 

Yigal Levin

 

From: Pere Porta [mailto:pporta7 AT gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 7:36 AM
To: Yigal Levin
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Why not patah?

 

Dear list,

 

We all know that the vowel of the first syllable in the Qal Perfect, third
person plural,  of regular verbs (shelemim) is qamats.

And so,

 

--)FM:RW, they said (Ps 64:6)

--$FLXW, they sent (Jr 14:3)

and so on.

 

My question is: why a qamats and not a patah?

 

Reasons like "tradition", "custom"... are not welcome. 

 

I'm trying to know and understand why a qamats and not a patah, mainly if we
consider that this first syllable is a closed syllable.

 

Would there be any trouble if patah was used here in the place of qamats?

 

Pere Porta

(Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain)

 

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-- 
Pere Porta