[Avodah] Hypercorrection

[Jay F. Shachter]

> 
> In Megilas Rus 1:14, Naami successfully dissuaded Orpah ....
>
> .................................
> 
> One might argue that Naami's initial advice ....
>
> .... and that is why I am focusing on 1:15, in which Naami knows ....
>

This spelling appeared several times, so it must have been intentional.

It is a mistake.  It should be No`omi.  The `ayin is vocalized with a
xataf qamatz, so there should be no question about the `ayin; the
second 'a' is inexplicable.  It is true that when native Hebrew
speakers pronounced (and pronounce) a schwa, they tended (tend) to
repeat, in abbreviated form, the previous vowel, hence the
pronunciation "Mordokhai" among people who care about such things, or
who (more frequently) are imitating people who care about such things.
But that vowel elision does not apply to the xataf vowels that
explicitly indicate how they should be pronounced.  So the second 'a'
is clearly wrong, even if the first 'a' is not.

The first 'a' is also wrong.  The nun is vocalized with a qamatz
qatan.  That is less obvious.  I could give you a rule that would
enable you to predict that.  But it is more desirable to speak Hebrew
well enough that your language sense takes over and you know without
thinking that the nun is vocalized with a qamatz qatan, because
obviously No`omi comes from "no`am".  Similarly, "govhei" in the
`Aleinu prayer obviously comes from "govah"; zokhrenu, kothmenu,
xothmenu, obviously come from zokher, kothev, xothem.  Your language
sense will inform you without thinking that each of those initial
vowels is a qamatz qatan.  If it does not, that is a sign that you
must improve your knowledge of Hebrew, because -- as has been
previously stated on this mailing list -- language limits and shapes
thought, and if we only speak the languages of the goyim, we perforce
think like them.

               Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
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               When Martin Buber was a schoolboy, it must have been
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