[Avodah] Transition From Aramaic To Hebrew

Micha Berger micha at aishdas.org
Mon Apr 16 11:10:22 PDT 2012


On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 10:10:24AM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
>> The practical significance of the question
>> involves the correct pronunciation of the word which follows "lana"
>> and which precedes "yisrael".  If that word is Hebrew, the qamatz
>> underneath the khaf is a qamatz qatan, and the word should rhyme with
>> "tall".

> Is it?  AFAIK that is only true in Modern Ivrit.  AIUI, Sefardim say
> "kal nidrei", not "kol".

What is your "that"? The qamatz qatan of "kol"? Or are you suggesting that
Israeli Hebrew has the near-cholam of qamatz qatan, but Sefaradim do not.

I do not think either is true. IOW, I do think that "kol" was noted as
having a qamatz qatan even back in Ben Asher, and is pronounced almost
like a cholam by many [most?] Sepharadi qehillos and Eidos haMizrach.
(And, I have a suspicion, even among many who spoke Galitzianish for the
qamatz qatan to be like the qamatz of other East Europeans. It's hard
to tell nowadays, when intermingling of accents reduced the number of
consistent Galitznianish speakers.)

And, FWIW, everything I said above for qamatz qatan also applies to
chataf-qamatz, as that is a qamatz *qatan* which is chatufah. (Or more
accurately, a sheva na that sounds qamatz-qatan like.)

The case I recall from other internet discussions (RMP?) is from the
Michlol 73a, where the Radaq says that Chazal did not say to stop in
Shema between bekhol and levavekha when it lists words that one should
be careful not to run into each other. (The two words are connected
with a maqaf.) The Radaq recommends splitting the two, but doing so
"balashon", which is something I do not understands, but different than
the usual inter-word pause. That in itself is worth a thread. But what's
relevent here...

The Radaq's sevara is that if Chazal had told us to pause, it would mean
that they would have turned the vowel in "bekhol" to a cholam. Which
implies that a qamatz qatan (a term I think he coined, BTW) did sound
much like a cholam, and not a patach.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 9th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        1 week and 2 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Gevurah sheb'Gevurah: When is strict justice
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