Function of a dagesh

Question

Occasionally Hebrew letters in Tanach have a dagesh mark. I saw one in a khaf sofit, as at the end of the second line of the Priestly Blessing and the 4th line of Ashrei, and it sparked my interest. What function does that dagesh serve?

I do not understand the function of a dagesh in general. If the dagesh in a khaf sofit has a function no different from any other dagesh, please tell me about that general function. I would like to know why a dagesh appears relatively rarely in a khaf sofit and what it's function is when it appears.

The wiki article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagesh does not explain why the dagesh is sometimes found in a khaf sofit and more often not.

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 18 '20 at 08:06

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A dot in a Hebrew letter indicates a strengthening of the sound of the letter.

For letters that have two ways of reading them, the dot indicates it's the 'harder' version that is to be used here.

In the letters בגדכפת the mark doing that is called a "dagesh kal" or "dagesh lene" or "weak dagesh" and it means to use the plosive version of the letters instead of the fricative form.

In the letters אהוי the mark doing that is called a "mappik" and it means the letter is a consonant not a mater lectionis. (Note a mappik is often omitted from writing when the status of the letter is obvious from context, such as where the letter is already marked with its own vowel.)

Otherwise (and sometimes in addition to the above function), a dot indicates the consonant is to be germinated. This version is called a "dagesh chazak" or "dagesh forte" or "strong dagesh".

A line on top of a letter (rafe) indicates the opposite: the weaker (or non-geminated) form is to be used.

Which form of a letter to use where depends on the conjugation and construction of the given word. Some letters are bound to have certain forms more or less often depending on how often they are used in prefixes, suffixes, and in different places in a root. There's no way to give a fixed rule for how often one form should show up.

edited May 18 '20 at 08:06

Kazi bácsi

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answered May 15 '20 at 17:45

Double AA

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These two sentences do not jibe. The first is the beginning of an answer, tho. "Which form of a letter to use where depends on the conjugation and construction of the given word." "There's no way to give a fixed rule for how often one form should show up." – Yehuda W May 15 '20 at 19:37
@YehudaW There's thousands of rules and exceptions that make up a book of Hebrew Grammar. Is that what you want? Here https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gesenius%27_Hebrew_Grammar – Double AA May 15 '20 at 19:37
Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Yehuda W May 15 '20 at 19:45
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Your answer talks in general about the function of dagesh, while (at least the edited version of) the question notes the relative rarity of dagesh on kaf sofit and asks about its function. – Kazi bácsi May 16 '20 at 19:17
@Kazi did I not address that? – Double AA May 17 '20 at 16:14
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Ok, so I've been thinking about this for a while and I couldn't really figure out this combination, that's why I would like to get an answer. Let's take the example of Psalms. If my calculations are correct, the kaf sofit with dagesh combination occurs 12 times, in all cases with kamatz and in a pausal form. I suppose that @YehudaW would also like to understand, whether this had any particular relevance or meaning. – Kazi bácsi May 18 '20 at 07:02
@Kazibácsi How many times does a ג show up next to a ט in Tanakh? How about a א next to a א? Does that have meaning? Or are certain conjugations more common in the language than others and that's just the way it is? One could tabulate all the relevant statistics, and there will be minima and maxima, though I'm not sure what the point would be. – Double AA May 18 '20 at 16:23
When does a dot in vav or yod behave as a mappik and not as a dagesh? – Argon Nov 09 '20 at 19:29
@Argon I never said it does, and it's basically impossible to prove 100%, but I tend to think https://www.mgketer.org/tanach/5/29/25 and https://www.mgketer.org/tanach/27/118/18 are mappikim. Same for לְפֻוָה in the mss that have it dotted. – Double AA Nov 09 '20 at 19:49
@DoubleAA I think my understanding was a fair interpretation of 'In the letters אהוי the mark doing that is called a "mappik"...'! At any rate, I think a stronger case may be made that in the yud was a dagesh hazak (as an anomalous dehik, as https://www.mgketer.org/tanach/27/20/9) and in the vav it represents a shurek (to indicate the vav was pronounced "w" --- note they tend to appear before another וּ "u" and see also: https://tanach.us/Tanach.xml?Song5:2-5:2). Additionally, I don't believe any masoretic texts refer to the dot in אוי as a mappik. – Argon Nov 11 '20 at 01:06
@Arg a shurek isn't pronounced w. That's a dot telling you to pronounce the letter as a consonant w not a vowel. Exactly the function of a mappik. I used to think like you about the yud but then I realized the only place that particular anomalous formation (chirik then word opening with dotted-yud) is on God's name. Now I suspect the dot is a mappik-like dot reminding you to pronounce God's name correctly and not swallow the semivowel consonant, not random gemination of God's name. We have other special marks around God's names (especially psiks) that seem only to ensure proper pronunciation. – Double AA Nov 11 '20 at 01:09
@DoubleAA A shureq is pronounced u, so it was probably used to denote a (similarly-articulated) bilabial "w" in some circumstances. I add that masoretic mss describe the vav as a "Palestinian vet" i.e. "v" while the vav in פֻוָה was "as the Palestinians say הוה" i.e. "w." I think it is possible that the dots in the yud were to preserve the yud, but that still doesn't preclude it from being pronounced as a dagesh hazak (as I believe all dehik constructions were). – Argon Nov 11 '20 at 01:21
@Argon as I said it's very hard to prove 100% and for at least the vav case it may just be a word game. But this is all about marked mappiks. We both know the rule that bgdkpt next to ahyw is rafeh except mappik mafsik dechik and ati-merachek. Which of those explains נָתַ֨ן בָּנָ֤יו פְּלֵיטִם֙ וּבְנֹתָ֣יו בַּשְּׁבִ֔ית? Or וּמִי֙ גּ֣וֹי גָּד֔וֹל? – Double AA Nov 11 '20 at 01:53
@DoubleAA I am not sure what the relevance of this point is. Of course you can have consontantal אהוי without a dot. Any word with a sheva under one of those letters satisfies that condition. But, I still think you can't call a dot in וי (and possibly even א) a mappik, and very few people do so. – Argon Nov 11 '20 at 02:12
@Argon the point is the Masoretes called such letters mappik. If it so happens that every case of a mappik vav and mappik yud was sufficiently obvious to not need to bother with special marking, so be it. (I have no reason a priori to think that necessarily must be the case.) But you can't tell me the word mappik is by definition only for hei. I too call the dot mappik even if it's only rarely (or never) actually worth it to be marked. – Double AA Nov 11 '20 at 02:17
Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Argon Nov 11 '20 at 02:29

Function of a dagesh

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