To: iriegner AT concentric.net, b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
Subject: Re: L"h verbs
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 12:20 -0500 (EST)
As I understand it, a word final HE is ALWAYS a mater and so not
pronounced as a consonant, unless it has a dot in it (Mappiq) in which
case it should be pronounced. In the majority of so-called "lamed-he"
or III-HE verbs the HE which appears in most forms is final and
without mappiq, and so is not a genuine root consonant. In most cases,
as in the Arabic etc parallels, the true third root consonant is YOD;
in a few cases (most clearly SH-L-H, properly SH-L-W, "be at rest") it
is WAW; this distinction can be made in a few verb forms. There are
also a few verbs with a genuine third consonant HE, in which the HE
has a mappiq when it is word final, e.g. G-B-H "be high". See Gesenius
section 75 for more details.