[Mesorah] Pinechas vs Pinchas (in Avodah Digest, Vol 33, Issue 95)

[David and Esther Bannett via Mesorah]

R' Micha points out that his grandfather's name was Pinechas. He proves 
it first by the yud after the pei which, by the rules of dikduk, makes 
the following sheva a na'.  In addition, the name is an Egyptian one, 
Pi-nechas, pi being a common prefix in Egyptian names.  In case you 
haven't been convinced yet, there is a meteg in the pei which, by the 
rules, makes the chirik malei and the sheva na'

There is, however, one small point that makes me wonder.  R' Aharon ben 
Asher who, for the last thousand years, has been called the accepted 
decision maker on correct spelling in Tana"kh seems to disagree.  In 
perek 11 of his book Dikdukei Hat'amim he describes the sh'vaim before 
the otyot g'roniot inside a word, when they are na' and when nach. 
Included in his list of words where they are nach are laqkhu, barchu, 
Pinchas, zar'u, etc.

IIRC, not all manuscripts have all the words and Pinchas might be 
omitted in some.  It is possible that copiers of the words lists added 
or omitted.

On the Mesorah sub-list it is known that I am anti-dikduk because it 
opens the way to change the fine points on Torah pronunciation to match 
its rules. Among these "improvements" was the changing of many internal 
sh'vaim in words from nach to na'.  What enabled this to happen was the 
brilliant invention by R' Yosef Kimchi of the ten vowel, five pairs of 
malei and chaseir. This led to the rule that after malei the sh'va is 
na' and after chaseir it is nach.

Ben Asher, in perek 10 notes that there are seven vowels in Hebrew.  All 
of the masoretes also state this. If there aren't pairs of malei and 
chaseir, we've just lost the rule about the following sh'vaim.  All this 
is not something new.  Heidenheim in his comments on the Ein Hakorei of 
RYHB"Y (Shemini, just before sh'lishi) states that in the times of the 
kadmonim many sh'vaim that are now na'im were then nachim. He quotes 
(from Ibn Ezra?) that  kol sh'va b'ot rafah shekadam lo echad mishiv'at 
ham'lakhim hu nach ki halashon ha-ivrit kasha la r'difat shalosh 
t'nu'ot...except for double letters and some words with groniot.

So how should I lein on Shabbos? Oh, no problem, I'm not the bal-koire.


bivrakha,

David




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