[Mesorah] Chana question (fwd)

[Yitzchak M. Gottlieb]

On Sat, 30 Sep 2006, Michael Hamm wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Sep 2006, D&E-H Bannett wrote, in part:
> > Methinks that if the word is akhla in the past tense, most
> > chumashim will have a meteg in the alef to indicate a long
> > vowel as per R' Yosef Kimhi.
> > 
> > As there is no meteg, the word is evidently okhla.
> 
> And someone else clarified for my benefit that this rule applies to any
> syllable two before the emphasis, counting a sh'va na as a syllable for
> this purpose.
> 
> Am I missing a key component of the rule?  Or are there just lots of
> exceptions?

The rule applies to open syllables only.  Also, the rule is for
where the ga'ya kallah can appear, not where it must appear.
Breur has a good explanation.

Zuki

-- 
Yitzchak Gottlieb
zuki at CS.Princeton.EDU