You are right, אצבע ECBA (see Ex.8:15), 'finger', for instance, is with a dot in the letter B, but this means, I think, that the reading at the time the dgeshim were introduced (possibly a millennium prior to the invention of the nikud), was ICBA or ACBA. The segol is possibly a visual compromise between a cere and a xirik, the same way the xatap-patax is a compromise between a schwa and a patax. The same holds true, I think, also for אשכל E$KOL, 'bunch, cluster', (see Song of Songs 1:14, and also Deut. 32:32 for the plural form A$KLOT), and the אשכר E$KAR of Ps. 72:10.
Isaac Fried, Boston University On May 7, 2012, at 11:42 AM, Pere Porta wrote: > a dagesh follows a segol _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
