Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

Uri is right, Hebrew speakers may insert an E sound between two  
consonants, where none exists, but this has nothing to do with the  
schwa "NA" and schwa "NAX" business. They routinely do it to  
distinguish between a radical and a pre-positioned letter. For  
instance, his BE-MITZ, 'in juice', to show that the letter B is not  
radical, yet $TUYOT, 'nonsense', although the schwa under the $ is "NA".

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Apr 28, 2011, at 10:21 PM, Uri Hurwitz wrote:

>    For instance, he repeats here again that "spoken
>  Hebrew has has ...no shwa "NA" and no shwa "NAX",..."
>
>    How about "Tarnegol?" (rooster); two shwaim follow
>  each other. The first Nax, quiescent, the second Na,
>  mobile.
>
>    How about "Lekha" (to you S/M}, "Reevim" (Hungry Pl/M)?
>  - the spoken language is full with such examples.
>
>    Of course there is the simple colloquial expression which
>  I mentioned before on the list:
>
>     "Shtuyot Bemitz" (nonsense), another example of these
>  two types of Shwa in one short phrase.