What about the poor Xiriq Xaser or the unfortunate Seghol - aren't these hitherto neglected short vowels expected to be followed by a Dagesh, or in the case of all three, by a quiescent Sh'wa? In short, don't they appear in what ancient grammerians called 'closed' syllables?
Of course, some modern grammarians argue that the case is opposite - that the Dagesh forte shortened the preceeding vowel for phonetic reason. But this is another matter. Humbly, Uri Hurwitz Great Neck, NY I notice that in both examples a dagesh follows a patax as expected. Isaac Fried, Boston University _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
