Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] two systems of dgeshim

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: B-Hebrew list <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew list <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] two systems of dgeshim
  • Date: Sat, 12 May 2012 21:52:56 -0400

Well, I think it is so The dagesh, which I believe to be a pre NIKUD reading hinter, is not needed in plene writing. Indeed, SIYM is routinely written in full, and consequently with no dagesh, as the יְשִׂימָם YSIYMAM of Deut. 7:15. But in 2Ki 13:7 it is וַיְשִׂמֵם WAYSIMEM, and still with no dagesh. This means, I think, that at the time the dgeshim were introduced into the biblical text the word was written plene with a Y, which was lost later on.

A similar fate befell the letter W of UGAB of Ps. 150:4, and hence the lack of a dagesh in the letter B following a qubuc.

I think that there were two systems of dgeshim that got mixed together in our present text. In one system, a dot was placed after a qubuc, a patax or a xiriq even in a letter not followed by a vowel, for example, סִתְּמוּם SITMUM of Gen. 26:15 and וַיְסַתְּמוּם WAYSATMUM of Gen. 26:18. In the other system, a dagesh is not placed in a letter marked now by a schwa, for instance, וַאֲמֻשְׁךָ WA-AMU$KA of Gen. 27:21.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On May 10, 2012, at 11:33 AM, Isaac Fried wrote:

Why there is no dot in the first letter M of וַיְשִׂמֵם
WAYSIMEM I don't know.





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page