[Heb-NACO] pronunciaton of kamats with meteg

Mon Apr 8 14:14:54 EDT 2013

Thanks!!! That is what I would probably do also. 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Barry Walfish" <barry.walfish at utoronto.ca> 
To: "Hebrew Name Authority Funnel" <heb-naco at lists.service.ohio-state.edu> 
Sent: Monday, April 8, 2013 8:34:31 AM 
Subject: Re: [Heb-NACO] pronunciaton of kamats with meteg 

Dear Heidi, 

It seems to me that both ways are acceptable and there is no clear-cut right or wrong way here. It depends on tradition and custom. So it’s not worth obsessing about it. I personally would say Na-o-mi. 
My two cents. 
Best, 
Barry 

From: heb-naco-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [mailto:heb-naco-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Biella, Joan 
Sent: April 8, 2013 9:39 AM 
To: 'Hebrew Name Authority Funnel' 
Subject: Re: [Heb-NACO] pronunciaton of kamats with meteg 

Here are some remarks on metheg by my two favorite Hebrew grammarians. It's hard for me to transcribe voweled Hebrew script in e-mail, so I've just marked all the vowels with metheg in RED . I hope you can follow the arguments below. 
Joan 

Lambdin, T.O. Introduction to Biblical Hebrew. New York : Scribers, c1971, pages xxvii-xxviii 

Metheg 
The metheg is a short perpendicular stroke placed under a consonant and to the left of the vowel sign (if any). It serves several purposes in the orthography, of which the following are the most important: 

1) Since the vowels ā and ē are regularly replaced by ə in open syllables two or more places before the main stress, their appearance in such positions may be regarded as anomalous. They are usually marked with metheg: 
ā noki I 
b ē rakhtani you blessed me 

2) In fact, any long vowel occurring two or more syllables before the main stress may be so marked, although manuscripts are inconsistent in this. Compare 
h ō sha ʻ save! 
h ō shi ʻ eni save me! 
This usage is particularly important with the vowel qamets, which is a short vowel o in closed, unaccented syllables and a long vowel ā elsewhere. This metheg is used with qamets = ā in any doubtful position to ensure the correct reading: 
yev ā rekheni he will bless me (not yevorkheni) 

3) Short vowels before the main stress usually occur in closed syllables. Whenever the contrary occurs, the vowel may be marked with metheg: 
t ā ʻ ă mod she will stand 
o h ŏ lo his tent 
This last example, with qamets = o , would seem to cancel out th eusefulness of metheg for distinguishing between the two values of qamets mentioned above. Actually, this is not often so, since qamets = ā is very rarely followed by qamets = o in the next syllable, but rather by ă : e.g. b ā ḥ ă ru (they chose). 

Gesenius ’ Hebrew Grammar as edited and enlarged by the late E. Kautzsch. 2 nd English edition revised by A.E. Cowley. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1966, pages 50-51. 

In all these cases the Jewish grammarians regard the Metheg accompanying the Qameṣ as indicating a Qameṣ raḥabh (broad Qameṣ) and therefore read the Qameṣ as ā ; thus p ā - ʻ ŏ lo, d ā - reban, p ā - ʻ ŏ l ə kha, q ā -dāshim. But neither the origin of these forms, nor the analogous formations in Hebrew and in the cognate languages, nor the transcription of proper names in the LXX [e.g. 
Νοομι ], allows us to regard this view as correct. 

From: heb-naco-bounces+jbie=loc.gov at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [ mailto:heb-naco-bounces+jbie=loc.gov at lists.service.ohio-state.edu ] On Behalf Of Heidi G Lerner 
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 11:37 AM 
To: Hebrew Name Authority Funnel 
Subject: [Heb-NACO] pronunciaton of kamats with meteg 

I am reading Sefer Rut on Shavuot and I have a question on the pronunciation of 
נעמי when the 1st kamats under the " נ " has a meteg next to it. Normally נעמי is pronounced "No ʻ omi". 
However, in Sefer Rut it is very often written with the meteg. Wouldn't that mean that it should be pronounced "Na ʻ omi"? 
To the best of my limited knowledge the meteg can appear with a long vowel in an unaccented syllable. 
"Meteg is also sometimes used in Biblical Hebrew to mark a long vowel . 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 shva 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. 

Any confirmation of the correct pronunciation will be appreciated. 

Thanks, Heidi 

-- 

Heidi G. Lerner 
Hebraica/Judaica Cataloger 
Metadata Development Unit 
Stanford University Libraries 
Stanford, CA 94305-6004 
e-mail: lerner at stanford.edu 
ph: 650-725-9953 
fax: 650-725-1120 
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