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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Pere Porta <pporta7 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Why dagesh?
  • Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2011 10:49:57 -0400

A dagesh follows a xiriq, a qubuc, and a patax. Just in Gen. 21 we find

וַיַּעַשׂ דִּבֵּר וַתַּהַר וַתֵּלֶד לַמּוֹעֵד הַנּוֹלַד צִוָּה בְּהִוָּלֶד מִלֵּל יָלַדְתִּי וַיִּגְדַּל וַיִּגָּמַל מִשְׁתֶּה

The dagesh is redundant and superfluous and can, in my opinion, be safely ignored. The dagesg is, I think, but a vestige of an ancient, pre NIQUD, reading clues.

The word VA-HA-QIM-OTY וַהֲקִמֹתִי of Gen 17:19 is interesting. There is no dagesh in the H because it is an H, there is no dagesh in the Q because it follows a xatap, but the lack of dagesh in the M calls for an explanation.

In Prov. 8:24 we find HA+BAU הָטְבָּעוּ with a dagesh in the B, but I think the qamatz in the HA- is not "original".
In Prov. 8:27 we find בְּחֻקוֹ חוּג עַל פְּנֵי תְהוֹם (translated by KJ as: When He drew a circle on the face of the deep) with B-XUQ-O punctuated with a qubuc, yet with no dagesh in the Q. In verse 29 we find בְּשׂוּמוֹ לַיָּם חֻקּוֹ וּמַיִם לֹא יַעַבְרוּ פִיו בְּחוּקוֹ מוֹסְדֵי אָרֶץ (translated by KJ as: When He assigned to the sea its limit. So that the waters would not transgress His command. When He marked out the foundations of the earth), with XUQ-O having a dagesh in the Q, making some people think it is "from" XQQ The second XUK-O written with a shuruq and with no dagesh in the Q, making some people think it is "from" XUQ.
I think it has all to do with lost and added vowels.

Isaac Fried, Boston University
On Jun 2, 2011, at 1:54 AM, Pere Porta wrote:

Why Niph'al Infinitives construct have dagesh in the first root consonant?

We have, for some examples,

HiGaMeL, be weaned (Gn 21:8)
(l)HiNaCel, (to) be delivered (Hb 2:9)
(b)HiNaGeF, (in) to be smitten (1K 8:33)

Look also at (k)HiMeS, (as) to melt (Ps 68:3)

As we often saw, usually the dagesh shows the doubling of a consonant, so
that we could say that dagesh = c + c -------- (c = consonant).

But in the Niph'al Infinitives (*)... which is the function of this dagesh?
What does this dagesh mean here?
Is this dagesh put here to distinguish this pattern from other similar
patterns?

Remark: The hiriq of prefix Hi- is rendered by a yud in the unvowelized
script.

(*) And also in the Niph'al Infinitive absolute (look at Ex 22:3 or at Jr
25:29) and in the Niph'al Imperative (look at Gn 19:17; Is 7:4...)

Regards from

--
Pere Porta
(Barcelona, Catalonia, Northeastern Spain)
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