[Mesorah] Kimchi's rules

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Apr 17, 2019 at 01:55:34PM -0400, rabbirichwolpoe wrote:
: well Did Babylonians and Teimanim use  7 a vowel system or a 10 vowel
: system?regardless of precisely how they pronounce those vowels.RRW

The simpler Bavli system has (had?) the following graphemes for vowels,
all are written above the letter.
	patach / segol
	qamatz
	tzeirei
	chirirq
	cholam
	qubutz / shuruq
	sheva na
Their actual shapes can be seen here:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_vocalization#Description>

Combining qubutz and shuruq makes sense. It's a simple malei and chaseiq
that way, like chiriq and tzeirei. And qamatz is one symbol; no hint of
qamatz qatan there. It's really only patach v. seqol that is particularly
informative.

A dageish chazaq is a bar *over* the vowel before the lettter to be
doubled. Like the shin in shabbos. The idea, I think, is that the things
over the letter describe the syllable the letter opens. Including whether
it is closed with the start of the next letter.

A bar *between* the vowel and the letter is used to show that the syllable
it closed and unaccented. Which is why there is no need for a sheva nach;
the letter after this one has to close the syllable, and therefor has
a sheva nach.

So the bar is on top of the stack when the next letter is doubled (a
Tiberian dageish chazaq) to close the syllable, and in the middle of the
stack when the next letter simply closes the syllable without doubling
as the start of the next syllable.

If they needed to note it, a tiny gimel over all of the above would serve
as a dageish qal (for that very letter), or a tiny quf as a rafeh mark.
In Bavel, a rafeh is aspirated (/bh/, like what English does to the "w"
of "which" because of the added "h".) So denoting it isn't as pressing
as denoting our veis or sav.

Te'amim in this system are also usually tiny letters, except for the
esnachata (a carat ^ over the vowel) , and the tipecha before an esnachta
(an "v" like shape -- upside-down carat).

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "I think, therefore I am." - Renne Descartes
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