[Mesorah] Lakakhat and Shachakhat - a surprising discovery

[Danny Levy]

While reading last Shabbat's rare haftara, I noted the words 'lakakhat' and
'shachakhat' (Yechezkel 22:12), which seemed to me to be unusual verb
forms. In regular verbs in binyan kal, past tense, the 2nd person feminine
singular form has a shva under the 3rd root letter and another shva (both
nach) under the following tav, e.g. 'shamart' (you guarded). In spoken
Hebrew the same is true even if the 3rd root letter is a guttural such as
chet or ayin ('lakakht', 'shachakht').

After not finding anyone who comments on these verb forms in Yechezkel, I
recalled another example, 'shma'at' (Ruth 2:8), and was unable to find
anywhere in Tanakh a parallel verb form with a shva under chet or ayin as
the 3rd root letter. I then sent a question to the Academy of the Hebrew
Language, who is the authority in Israel on modern Hebrew. They replied
that indeed in Tanakh these verb forms consistently have a patach under
chet or ayin, but the shva has become an acceptable alternative in modern
Hebrew, both because this is how everybody speaks and to avoid confusion
with words that sound identical (e.g. 'lakakhat' can mean 'you took' or 'to
take', 'nakhat' can mean 'you rested' or 'gratification')

For me, this was a surprising discovery.

Danny Levy
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