[Mesorah] Pitda

[Danny Levy]

Many thanks to you both, R' Seth and R' Aharon for the detailed explanation
and the reference respectively.
I was familiar with the absence of the dagesh in BG"D KP"T following a shva
merachef, but did not realize that there are many other exceptions without
similar neat explanations.

Danny

‫בתאריך יום א׳, 22 במרץ 2020 ב-16:13 מאת ‪Mandel, Seth‬‏ <‪mandels at ou.org
‬‏>:‬

> Dear R. Danny,
> It comes as a shock to most people (as it did to me) that "rules" of
> grammar are not like laws.  Words that do not obey them are not tortured,
> forced to confess in public for their misdeeds and sentenced (remember
> despite all the gloom and doom that surrounds us that it  is still Ador!).
> Rules are meant to describe the 95% of cases that follow them.  In all
> languages that exist there is always that pesky 5% that do not work.
> Sometimes there are subrules, and sometimes there are just those words that
> refuse to follow the rules. After a couple of hundred years, they usually
> succumb to the force of analogy, and then other words sprout up to take
> their place.
> One of the purposes of the Ba'aei Masorah was to preserve all the
> oddities.  Everyone know how to pronounce words like shomayim, and no one
> needed vowels to show them.  But then there are these words that are
> pronounced one way in this posuq and differently in another, like the
> famous קוי: in Isaiah 40:31 it is read /qoye/, whereas in Psalms 37:9 it is
> /qowe/. The Masoretes carefully vocalized it differently, and noted that
> each form was a hapax legmenon and not like the other.
> Nowadays, I remember all the rules I was taught as a boy, and it took me
> many years to realize that rules are really summaries for how the 95%
> behave.
> It is generally true that after a silent sh/'wa the BG'D KP'T is of the
> fricative variety (without the dagesh qal), but NOT all the time.  Words
> like מלכי ישראל were always pronounced with a silent sh'wa. And there are
> hundreds of words like them, versus the tens of thousands that follow "the
> rules."
> פטדה in all mss. is vocalized without a dagesh in the dalet, and in some
> even specifically has the rafeh sign above the dalet; it belongs to the
> group that numbers in the hundreds rather than the general rule.
> But my compliments to you.  Most people cannot handle the idea of two hard
> dentals following each other.  Several times I have been asked how to
> pronounce ועבדתם and ואבדתם in Q'S or words words like ושפטתי in Exodus
> 18:16.  I usually respond (sometimes with my tongue in cheek, which makes
> it quite difficult to say the words properly) that the ones in Q'S one must
> pronounce with great care, and the other with lesser care.
> It is a truthful answer, although I know it is not what they are asking. I
> do not need to argue that if one pronounces the soft BG'D KP'T differently
> than the hard then there is absolutely no problem in pronouncing the ones
> in Q'S correctly. Even if one pronounces them hard, one can separate the
> syllables, as we were taught in elocution class.
>
> Rabbi Dr. Seth Mandel
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Mesorah <mesorah-bounces at lists.aishdas.org> on behalf of Danny
> Levy via Mesorah <mesorah at lists.aishdas.org>
> *Sent:* Saturday, March 21, 2020 4:11 PM
> *To:* mesorah at lists.aishdas.org <mesorah at lists.aishdas.org>; Mesorah List
> <mesorah at aishdas.org>
> *Subject:* [Mesorah] Pitda
>
> While reading the Parsha to my family today in the confines of my home, I
> wasn't sure whether to read the shva of pitda (39:10) as na or nach.  On
> the one hand it apparently follows a short vowel but on the other hand
> there is no dagesh kal in the dalet.
>
> As I was using a Breuer Tanach, which does not mark a ga'ya kala by every
> long vowel that is followed by a shva na, I wondered whether maybe this is
> a chirik gadol that is written chaser (without the yud).  Later I checked
> Koren, which marks all the ga'yot kalot, but it is not there either.
>
> So it looks like it must be a shva nach, but why is there no dagesh in the
> dalet?
>
> When reading Parshat Hachodesh I was struck by the similarity of our
> current situation to our ancestors in Egypt on leil Pesach. May we like
> them experience geulah soon.
>
> Danny Levy
>
>
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