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<font size="+3">R' Micha points out that his grandfather's name was
Pinechas. He proves it first by the yud after the pei which, by
the rules of dikduk, makes the following sheva a na'. In
addition, the name is an Egyptian one, Pi-nechas, pi being a
common prefix in Egyptian names. In case you haven't been convinced
yet, there is a meteg in the pei which, by the rules, makes the
chirik malei and the sheva na'<br>
<br>
There is, however, one small point that makes me wonder. R'
Aharon ben Asher who, for the last thousand years, has been called
the accepted decision maker on correct spelling in Tana"kh seems
to disagree. In perek 11 of his book Dikdukei Hat'amim he
describes the sh'vaim before the otyot g'roniot inside a word,
when they are na' and when nach. Included in his list of words
where they are nach are laqkhu, barchu, Pinchas, zar'u, etc.<br>
<br>
IIRC, not all manuscripts have all the words and Pinchas might be
omitted in some. It is possible that copiers of the words lists
added or omitted. <br>
<br>
On the Mesorah sub-list it is known that I am anti-dikduk because
it opens the way to change the fine points on Torah pronunciation
to match its rules. Among these "improvements" was the changing of
many internal sh'vaim in words from nach to na'. What enabled
this to happen was the brilliant invention by R' Yosef Kimchi of
the ten vowel, five pairs of malei and chaseir. This led to the
rule that after malei the sh'va is na' and after chaseir it is
nach. <br>
<br>
Ben Asher, in perek 10 notes that there are seven vowels in
Hebrew. All of the masoretes also state this. If there aren't
pairs of malei and chaseir, we've just lost the rule about the
following sh'vaim. All this is not something new. Heidenheim in
his comments on the Ein Hakorei of RYHB"Y (Shemini, just before
sh'lishi) states that in the times of the kadmonim many sh'vaim
that are now na'im were then nachim. He quotes (from Ibn Ezra?)
that kol sh'va b'ot rafah shekadam lo echad mishiv'at ham'lakhim
hu nach ki halashon ha-ivrit kasha la r'difat shalosh
t'nu'ot...except for double letters and some words with groniot.<br>
<br>
So how should I lein on Shabbos? Oh, no problem, I'm not the
bal-koire.<br>
<br>
<br>
bivrakha,<br>
<br>
David<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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