I Heart Dagesh
I’ve decided that I love dagesh even though gutturals don’t so much (though aleph does get its dagesh on in Leviticus 23:17). Today I praise God for the Masoretes and their similar love for the dagesh. For without them today would not even be possible. The dagesh doubles the fun. The dagesh hints at the hiding place of a nun (sneaky nun thought that it could assimilate! Dagesh says, “Think again, silly nun.” [Nun as in the Hebrew character, not nun like the habit. Dagesh isn't so good at pointing out hiding nuns...though who can forget the sneaky, mischievious nuns from the Sound of Music]). Disgress…I mean, dagesh also points out our friend the piel. April 10 is Dagesh Day. If a waw starts gettin’ sad, boom! Dagesh and now you’re a shureq!
[PS. What's the plural of dagesh? Dageshi? Dageshae? Dageshim? Dageshoat?]
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April 11th, 2008 at 09:53
Drew,
Those Masoretes were so creative. The dagesh looks exactly like a mappiq. Dr. Sailhamer would always talk about the creative weekend that the Masoretes would take to make decisions on notations. They would sit in the hot spring tubs and drink some wine, only to come back with a dot. He always had some other scribbling in mind to distinguish between the various uses of the dagesh.
Also, to add to your Alefs…Ruth chapter 2 has two alefs that take a dagesh. Hmm…
Of course, for me, I’ve always called the Gutterals the fundamentalists of Hebrew Letters. They believe that the dagesh is the mark of the beast.
