Exceptions Ahoy!

In general, the first letter of a word beginning with בג"ד כפ"ת will usually have a דגש. However, if the word is connected to the word preceding it and that word ends with a vowel sound, the דגש is removed. The letters that are capable of producing a vowel sound are א, ה, ו, י. I've always found AHOY to be the easiest mnemonic for this rule. There are two exceptions to this rule in the תורה and both are found in this week's פרשה. In fact, they are both in אז ישיר.

The first is טו:יא מִי-כָמכָה בָּאֵלִם ה', מִי כָּמכָה נֶאְדָּר בַּקּדֶשׁ. The first מִי-כָמכָה follows the rule. The second does not. מנחת שי cites two reasons for this. First, he says that since the name מיכה is the name of an עבודה זרה, it is not proper for the name to "appear" to be mentioned next to השם's name which it would if you were not to pause sufficiently between מי and כמכה. The second reason is an allegorical explanation in the name of ר' יוסף קרא. [Perhaps there is a difference between the two as to whether or not one should bother to go back if they slip up. According to the first approach, once you've said it, it's pretty much too late. But perhaps according to the second approach you do accomplish something by going back. Nevertheless, this should NOT be corrected in shul.]

The second example is טו:טז בִּגְדל זְרוֹעֲךָ יִדְּמוּ כָּאָבֶן. It should be כָאָבֶן. Once again, according to מנחת שי, we are afraid of an improper stringing of words. Without the דגש, it might sound like יִדְּמוּךָ אָבֶן, which would essentially be stating that a rock is comparable to חס ושלום ,השם. And while we are dealing with this particular phrase and the significance of the דגש, it is important to note - as pointed out to me by a reader - that the דגש in the דל"ת makes the accompanying שוא נע extremely important. Yidmu would be a word denoting similarity but the proper pronunciation - yidemu - denotes silence.

MG said...

The Mesorah Gedolah in Daniel perek 5 lists all the exceptions to the "AHOY" rule. In "Az Yashir" you have the two you mention plus 3 more: "Ga'oh Ga'ah" which appears twice (once in the Shira and once by Miriam) and also "Am zu Ga'alta" where the Gimmel has a dagesh even though it shouldn't. The Minchas Shai explains this last one as needing a dagesh because without a dagesh one might confuse the shoresh as being from the word "M'Go'al" which is derogatory.

DECEMBER 16, 2008 12:11 AM

Qualification of the אהוי rule

I have recently been asked on a number of occasions regarding apparent exceptions to the אהוי rule which is that if a word ends with one of those letters, it will remove an expected דגש at the beginning of the next word. This is provided that the first word is connected to the second by means of a טעם משרת such as a מרכא, rather than a pausal note like an אתנחתא or טפחא.

The first example was in ויצא:

ל:טז ...וַתֹּ֨אמֶר֙ אֵלַ֣י תָּב֔וֹא

The י does not remove the דגש from the תּ even though it has a מונח which functions as a משרת.

Another example on which this question was raised was in אחרי מות:

יח:ה ...וָחַ֣י בָּהֶ֑ם

Again, the דגש remains in the בּ.

This phenomenon is interestingly observed in בחוקתי. The first mention of the word בחוקתי is on a טפחא which is a מפסיק anyway. But when it is mentioned in the negative portion, we find:

כו:טו וְאִם־בְּחֻקֹּתַ֣י תִּמְאָ֔סוּ

The מונח is a משרת but the תּ keeps its דגש.

It is important to forget about the actual letters for a moment. The essence of this rule is that it is applied when the first word ends with a vowel. This best way to understand this apparent anomaly is to observe a similar paradigm we find the English language with the letter Y. It can function as a consonant, as in yes or year, but can also be used as a vowel, as in the word gym or psychology. When the י extends a vowel sound, which would seem to be only after a צירי or חיריק, it functions as a vowel. However, after any other vowel, the function of the י is clearly a consonant, closing the syllable. Therefore, the אהוי rule would not apply. 

(Now, this applies to צירי and חיריק because they both end with a י sound. That is why the י is said to extend or fill the vowel. If one pronounces a חולם "oy," shouldn't it apply there, too, whereas if you pronounce it "oh," it would not. As per the comments below, דברים ד:ח וּמִי֙ גּ֣וֹי גָּד֔וֹל is a good example. If this theory is correct it would prove the "oy" pronunciation to be incorrect. But I'm not fully convinced myself.)