[HANASHIR:11429] grammar faux pas

[erik contzius <contzius...>]

in the category of "i shoulda remembered this one..."

when a letter has both a shva AND a dagesh, it's
ALWAYS pronounced as a shva na [although it's sorta
shva m'rakhef... but if you don't know what that is,
don't worry.]!
in the case of:

V'hash'vi'i

i was looking in the siddur, and noticed the dagesh in
the shin. therefore, it is a sheva na underneath. the
rule goes something like this:

1) when there are two shva's in a row (two consonants,
both bearing a sheva), the first is ALWAYS shva nakh,
the second ALWAYS shva na. the reason being that the
first sheva closes the previous syllable. the second
sheva opens the next syllable.

2) A dagesh doubles the value of a consonant. (think
of the word "shabbat" and the fact that in english,
it's spelled with two "b's". the first b closes the
last syllable, making the letter 'a' in "shabbat" a
short vowel; the second "b" opens the next syllable.

3) since a consonant with a dagesh is, in fact,
doubled, and if it bears a sheva, it's like having two
letters with a sheva, and then you see rule number 2
apply. it should be noted that this particular sheva
not only closes the last syllable (like a sheva nakh
would) and opens the next syllable (like a sheva na
would), the sheva acts like both a sheva na AND nakh,
and takes the name "sheva merakhef", but it's still
pronounced like a sheva na.

okay. shoot me now. i'm a hebrew grammar dork!

cantor erik contzius



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