<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'>I am reading Sefer Rut on Shavuot and I have a question on the pronunciation of <br>נעמי when the 1st kamats under the "נ" has a meteg next to it. Normally נעמי is pronounced "Noʻomi".<br>However, in Sefer Rut it is very often written with the meteg. Wouldn't that mean that it should be pronounced "Naʻomi"?<br>To the best of my limited knowledge the meteg can appear with a long vowel in an unaccented syllable.<br><br><p>"Meteg is also sometimes used in Biblical Hebrew to mark a <a title="Vowel length" href="/wiki/Vowel_length">long vowel</a>. While short and
long vowels are largely allophonic, they are not always predictable from
spelling, e.g. ויראו 'and they saw' vs. ויראו 'and they feared'. Meteg's
indication of length also indirectly indicates that a following <a title="Shva" href="/wiki/Shva">shva</a> is vocal, as in the previous case. Note that this may
distinguish qamatz gadol and qatan, e.g. שמרה 'she guarded' vs. שמרה 'guard
(volitive)'."--Wikipedia.</p><p><br></p><p>Any confirmation of the correct pronunciation will be appreciated.</p><p><br></p><p>Thanks, Heidi<br></p><br><br><br><br><br>-- <br><div><span name="x"></span>Heidi G. Lerner<br>Hebraica/Judaica Cataloger<br>Metadata Development Unit<br>Stanford University Libraries<br>Stanford, CA 94305-6004<br>e-mail: lerner@stanford.edu<br>ph: 650-725-9953<br>fax: 650-725-1120<br><span name="x"></span><br></div></div></body></html>