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In most siddurim I've seen, the word "ונחמתא" in kaddish is written "וְנֶחֱמָתָא," with a סגול ("eh" sound) under the ח.

However, someone recently told me that a certain (very trustworthy) rabbi believes that the word should be pronounced with a קמץ (an "uh" sound) under the ח.

Is either nikkud more correct? If so, why?

msh210
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MTL
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    In the singular (נחמתא), Jastrow has a segol, and Sokoloff (Babylonian) has a qamats. The Syriac is with a segol. – magicker72 Nov 17 '14 at 04:07
  • @magicker72 Interesting! ....is there a possible reason for one to be preferred over the other? i.e., is either more correct (possibly more correct in context of the rest of kaddish?) – MTL Nov 17 '14 at 04:09
  • Not sure. To add to my comment above: the dictionary Even Shoshan has נחָמתא with a qamats. (oddly it won't let me tag you). – magicker72 Nov 17 '14 at 04:15
  • Thanks for the info.....it won't let you tag me because since I wrote this post, I'm always notified of comments under it, and there is no need for you to specify that you're talking to me because no one else has commented on this question. So far I've just been able to check the Jastrow, will hopefully get to see the others soon. – MTL Nov 17 '14 at 04:17
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    teimoni/babylonian pronunciation doesnt contain segol. they pronounce the segol as a qoma9. therefore writing the word with a segol or qoma9 for teimonim/bablim would be the same. it would be pronounced na7amotho. – MoriDowidhYa3aqov Nov 17 '14 at 08:47
  • @MoriDoweedhYaa3qob Thanks for that info! That sounds like an answer to me.... – MTL Nov 17 '14 at 19:55
  • @shokhet i lied it should sounding a pata7 not a qoma9. But the sound is the same ah. Qoma9 is aw – MoriDowidhYa3aqov Nov 18 '14 at 03:59
  • Never noticed before, but it seems to be an Ashkenaz / Eidut HaMizrach divide, when looking into Sidurim. – Danny Schoemann Nov 18 '14 at 14:51
  • @DannySchoemann That may be because of what MoriDoweedhYaa3qob wrote above. That's interesting! – MTL Nov 18 '14 at 14:53
  • I'll admit, it was MoriDoweedhYaa3qob's comment that made me peek more closely into those various Siddurim. :-) – Danny Schoemann Nov 18 '14 at 15:00
  • i have the jirso of the qaddish on my profile page. וְנֶחָמָתָא wana7omotho – MoriDowidhYa3aqov Nov 18 '14 at 21:39
  • @MoriDoweedhYaa3qob I had actually seen that at one point or another, but didn't remember who had done that. Thanks for pointing that out! – MTL Nov 18 '14 at 22:11
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    Related: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/66414 – msh210 Dec 20 '15 at 02:53
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    @DannySchoemann EidOt. They're people, not testimony. – Double AA May 13 '16 at 05:43
  • Rav Hamburger shlit"a says it should be וְנֶחָמָתָא – Joshua Pearl Mar 04 '18 at 20:10
  • @JoshuaPearl Okay...want to write an answer? (Who is Rav Hamburger?) Also, did he explain why that vowelization is correct? – MTL Mar 04 '18 at 22:25

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