[Avodah] Baruch Mordechai (was re:sobering thoughts for Purim)

[Elazar M. Teitz]

      To my comment,
 
 <I claim no expertise in dikduk, but it is my understanding that there
is no such thing as a chataf other than under a guttural...
 in kaddish shaleim), where the syllable is an open one. If this is
 correct, then those who have a chataf-kamatz under the dalet in Mord'chai
 should read it as a full kamatz katan, not as a chataf kamatz.>

     RMicha Berger responded

 <I expected you to end with "should reach it as a sheva na". That's what
R Mordechai Breuer concludes in one of the appendices to his Tanakh.>

     I was unaware of R. Breuer's conclusion.  However, if such is the case, why is the chataf-kamatz symbol used, instead of the chataf-patach which is the symbol chosen to represent sh'va na, in words such as hal'lu and bor'chu?

    RMB wrote further

<In any case, the name probably isn't Hebrew -- why assume it follows
Hebrew rules of niqud?>

     The name might not follow the rules of nikkud, but the nikkud follows the rules of nikkud.  Thus, a foreign name might appear whose accent is three syllables before the last in a word, violating a rule of Hebrew which has accents only the ultimate, penultimate and (rarely) propenultimate syllables.  The vowels represented by the symbols, however, do not change because they are being used to express a foreign name -- and Hebrew does not have a chataf under a non-guttural.

EMT

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