Diqduq Geeks

From: Lipman
Date: Tue Jul 26, 2005 3:53 am
Subject: Re: BGDKP"T

Alas, you are wrong, my dear Lipman. As Sa`adya Gha'on points out in his
commentary on Sepher Yetsira (as translated by Ze'ev Ben Hayyim, as
quoted in H. Yalon's מבוא לניקוד המשנה, p. 121:

מנהג לשון אבותינו הוא... ואין זה נוהג במקרא בלבד, אלא בכל הדיבור והשיחה, אף בקרב הנשים, כמו שמספרים, כי אישה אחת הלכה אל המורה ואמרה לו יא ספרא אפני בֿרי, ולא אמרה בְּרִי דגוש, ואחת מהן קראה לבנה גּד גּד דגוש ולא נענה, ואז קראה יא גֿד רפי, מפני שהוסיפה יא.

I read this years ago, and I'm still fascinated. At that point of the comment thread, I didn't see you were deliberately choosing this state of the language.

Actually, which state and layer of Hebrew do you use? And why? (I say tíshebaV, as my ancestors during the last 12 to 24 generations.)

Concerning the issue itself, it's a can of worms, as I'm sure you know. The example quoted by Sa-adyo Go-oun is Babylonian Jewish Aramaic, and there is a theory that here, and only in Aramaic, the begad-kefas rules apply, and were then imposed by the masoretes on BH. (Personally, I don't think this is necessarily a problem of emune and hashkofe.)

Best,

Lipman