George, I would say that in חֵרְשִׁים the second sere of חֵרֵשׁ does not get reduced. it simply vanishes and a shewa takes its place.
You assume that "under normal conditions" the first tsere would get reduced. But this is not true. a) first root consonant guttural: In Gn 5:29 ------- אֵרְרָהּ, he cursed her (Some codexes have hatef patah and not shewa) b) first root consonant other than guttural: In Jb 6:7 -------- מֵאֲנָה, she rejected (and not מֲאֵנָה) In Ps 129:8 ------- בֵּרַכְנוּ, we blessed, of בֵּרֵךְ (Ps 10:3) As for a reference: -1. First of all my own work on Hebrew patterns (named "Oham" = Otsar ha-mishqalym), where I've deeply studied about nine thousand (9,000) patterns. -2. The Academy of the Hebrew Language stated: Nouns having sere in their first syllable and also in their second one drop the second sere and take shewa instead, with the following exception: They take segol and not shewa when suffixes -kha, -khem or -khen are added; but if the second root consonant is guttural a patah replaces the segol. But remark: the first sere remains. Of course, I can give you the Academy's exact reference if it is of your interest. I hope this will be useful and helpful. Kind regards from Pere Porta (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) 2011/4/7 George Athas <[email protected]> > Pere, > > That explanation doesn't sit well with me, since the sere vowel is > reducible, and under normal conditions, it would be the first sere in חֵרֵשׁ > that gets reduced. Why does the first remain, and the second get reduced? > > Do you happen to have a reference to which you could direct me? > > > GEORGE ATHAS > Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia) > www.moore.edu.au > > > From: Pere Porta <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> > Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 16:32:12 +0200 > To: George Athas <[email protected]<mailto: > [email protected]>> > Cc: B-Hebrew <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected] > >> > Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Plural of חֵרֵשׁ (deaf) > > Dear George, > > This is not a morphological "oddity"; this is the usual plural form of > words like "heresh". For instance, of "qereaH", bald (Lv 13:40). > > The form with hatef patah in the first syllable and tsere in the second one > is ONLY for adjective "aher", other (look at Gn 23:13) and for words having > (in the singular absolute) qamats in their first syllable plus tsere in > their second one and whose first root consonant is guttural: haber, friend > (Jd 20:11), arel, uncircumcised (Jr 9:25), ayef, tired (Jd 8:4) > > Kind regards from > > Pere Porta > (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) > > _______________________________________________ > b-hebrew mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew > -- Pere Porta _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
