[Mesorah] vayichadd

[Zev Sero via Mesorah]

I just noticed that this reply went to R Sholom rather than the list.
I now see that others have given the same answer

On 01/23/2016 08:59 PM, Sholom Simon via Mesorah wrote:
> Shemos 18:9 starts off with the word "vayichadd" -- the final dalet
> having a dagesh and a shva.
>
> Apologies if this is a simple question: what is that?  Why does the
> word need that as an ending?

I assume that it's similar to such words as "vayishb", "vayesht",
and "vayevk", where the final letter, which would normally be rafeh,
is to be pronounced with a dagesh.  Here too, the word is pronounced
"vayichad" rather than "vayichadh", as one would expect.   I imagine
that if chet were not guttural the word would be "vayichd", like all
the others, but since that's difficult to pronounce with a guttural
the chet got an extra patach.

The sheva under the final letter is to emphasise that it's not silent.
Vowel-less letters are usually silent, except at the end of a word;
but since these words end in *two* letters one might think that one
of them is silent, so they both get shevas.  In this case the first
sheva became a patach, so you'd think the second one can disappear,
but it stayed.

At least that's my supposition.


-- 
Zev Sero               All around myself I will wave the green willow
zev at sero.name          The myrtle and the palm and the citron for a week
                And if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm doing that
                I'll say "It's a Jewish thing; if you have a few minutes
                I'll explain it to you".