[Mesorah] Heh Hayedia

[Yitzchak M. Gottlieb]

On Dec 17, 2011, at 9:03 PM, Gershon Dubin wrote:

> Rabbi Reisman said in tonight's Navi shiur that a heh hayedia is always followed by a dagesh.  Besides those letters that cannot take a dagesh, I can think of at least one exception;  do our learned colleagues have any comment on this rule?

As others have mentioned, mem and yod seem to elide the dagesh.  (The Ibn Ezra comments on dropping the dagesh to "be easier on the tongue.) Another set of exceptions is the tsadi in tsfarde'im. If there is a g'ya (meteg) on the he, then depending on the structure of the word, the sh'va may be na or nach.  (See Breuer's discussion of g'yat he)

Zuki

-- 
Yitzchak M. Gottlieb
zuki at CS.Princeton.EDU