[Mesorah] sh'va na and nach

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Dec 04, 2017 at 06:13:48PM -0500, Michael Poppers wrote:
: R'Micha wrote:
: > Hebrew can only have a closed syllable at the end of a word or with a
: sheva nach. (Or in the case of a khaf peshutah, both.) <

: ...or due to a dageish [chazaq] in the 2..Nth syllable's initial
: consonant.  Think of the syllable's end as a sh'va nach, but that sh'va
: need not be visible.

The way I think of it... In English, if a syllable is closed with the same
consonant as the next syllable begins, we double the letter -- "butter",
"mammal", etc... In Hebrew, the letter is written just once, degushah.

Which means that if you see the letter twice in a row, the first letter
can't have a sheva nach, as that would have been a closed syllable,
and the doubling would be collapsed into a degushah. Rather, the double
letter would only be if the first copy started a syllable, and thus if
it got a sheva, it would be na.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It is a glorious thing to be indifferent to
micha at aishdas.org        suffering, but only to one's own suffering.
http://www.aishdas.org                 -Robert Lynd, writer (1879-1949)
Fax: (270) 514-1507