The Mapiq in some final 'He' letters in the Heb. bible indicates that
these are a fully pronounced consonants .
This can be concluded from Arabic forms such as "beha". Notice the
vowelled ...ha. The final vowell Alif ( = Aleph ) is the marker of all 3.f.s.
pronominal suffixes in Arabic.
This can further be observed in the the qamatz under the 'He' in all
3.f.plural Heb. declensions : e.g.. "dodeyha" "suseyha" .
Since the Massoretes marked such forms with a Mapiq, they heard in their
time the distinction in pronounciation between the regular 'He' at the end of
a word, say, "Na(arah" (girl), and - on the other hand - "Lah(.)" (to her).
On Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:35:30 -0400, Berel Beyer <berelbeyer at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I wonder if I could impose upon you for help pointing me in the right
> direction. I understand that there are people who claim that the
> masoretes intended the mappiq he to be an orthographic distinction
> rather than one of actual pronunciation. Can anyone point me to an
> article (for a non-expert like myself) that summarizes the argument?
I have seen that claim also, but have never seen any evidence to back
it up. Until I see such, I think the most natural course is to take
the mappiq at face value, and take it to indicate a pronounced [h] at
the end of a word.