[HANASHIR:10198] Re: L'cha Dodi pronunciation

[Andy Curry <acurry...>]

At 04:17 PM 10/31/01 +0100, you wrote: 
>>>>

The second issue was on the pronunciation of the word "balah" (husband) in
the Bo-i V'Shalom verse.
Again - it is a matter of Biblical Hebrew and Modern Hebrew grammar. In
modern Hebrew, an "ayin" cannot have only a "shva" under it, but in
Biblical Hebrew it can. Thus the "ayin" is not spoken out as in modern
Hebrew "ba-ala" but also not completely silent, thus it is something like
"ba-la".
  
Hope this helps
Hadass
  
<<<<

Without knowing all the rules of grammar, ancient OR modern, I pronounce an
ayin-shva or aleph-shva with a guttural stop, figuring that it's there for
a reason.  It's easy to chant but rather hard to do in choral singing, so
you might want to compromise and suggest that the singers sing the first
syllable, "ba", as though it were followed by a very short rest before the
"la" syllable.

Another one that's hard is the hey with a dagesh at the end of a word.
According to what I know, that hey is NOT silent.  You have to save some
breath for it.

Kol tuv,
Andy

Andy Curry, Kansas City
acurry (at) lenexa(dot)sema(dot)slb(dot)com

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