Thursday, August 3, 2023

To Afflict the Corrector

ח:ג וַיְעַנְּךָ
Need I say more? I think I do. Most people with even a slight דקדוק awareness will know that it is important to not pronounce this וַיַעַנְךָ. That would mean "and He answered you," rather than "and He afflicted you." You might hear some בעלי קריאה making the שוא very clear to show that they are saying it correctly. However, this too is incorrect. It is a שוא נח under the יו"ד. So the actual proper pronunciation would be: vay-a-ne-CHA. One has to be very careful to make the "Syllable Stop" before the פתח. I'm not sure if there is a better technical term for that but I'm going with it for now - the art of "pronouncing" the שוא נח such that it breaks the syllable such as in אַתָּה הָרְאֵתָ last week -  har-EI-sa, as opposed to ha-REI-sa.

Of course, the real problem becomes that the very correct pronunciation here is barely discernible from the very incorrect pronunciation, which makes my job all the more difficult. So, maybe pronouncing that שוא נע isn't such a bad idea after all.

As another reader has pointed out, the דגש חזק in the נ is another important differentiating factor. Properly executing it should remove all doubt as to whether the word has been pronounced correctly.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The technical term you are looking for is probably "glottal stop".

David said...

Isn't that just a sh'va na under the resh in v'har'eta? I don't understand the problem--is the a dagesh in the nun of the first word you discuss or not?

Reuvain said...

בחומש סימנים יש מתג לפני השוא. הלא זה סימן שהשוא שוא נע?

Yitzchak Etshalom said...

Wouldn't the proper transliteration of הראת be "hor-ei-ta" (or "hor-ei-sa")? It seems to be a slam dunk that the קמץ under the ה"ה is a קמץ קטן...

Shtikler said...

Yes, sorry, I've been meaning to come back to this to explain. Thank you R' Etshalom (big fan of your Daf Yomi, by the way - quickest Daf Yom in the West) for making that point. The תיקון סימנים has it all, including blatant indicators as to which is a שוא נע and which is not so we need not worry about "hints" such as a מתג. Even though it is preceded by a קמץ, as R' Etshalom explained, it is a קמץ קטן and therefore does not make the שוא נע.

The נו"ן in our case does have a דגש חזק and pronouncing it properly is another differentiation between the word with the meaning "to answer" which does not.

As for why I transliterated "har" vs. "hor," the vast majority of בעלי קריאה in הברה אשכנזית do not seem to differentiate a קמץ קטן so that's why I transliterated it with "har."

ELIE said...

אני לא מבין
ויענך בנ' דגושה הוא לשון עינוי
אינני יודע אם געיא (מתג) בוי"ו
גם אם יש השווא בי' הוא נח
הנו"ן בשווא נע

את כל שאר הוויכוחים כאן אינני מבין

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