# Why is dagesh missing after shva nach?



## rogerbrewer

I know shva na and shva nach have been discussed here extensively. I have searched and don't see an answer to my question.  My apologies if it's already been adequately addressed.

I believe I know the rules for shva nach versus shva na, as follows.

shva na occurs:
1. when marked under the first letter of a word,
2. when it's the second of two shvas marked under two consecutive letters (except when marked under the last letter of a word),
3. when the letter before the one under which it is marked is marked with a "long" niqqud-variant   אָ (ah)     אֵ    וֹ  וּ   אִי   בֹ
4. when marked under a letter with a dagesh ḥazaq (gemination).
5. on the first letter of two identical letters 
6. when the preceding letter has a meteg
7. when there are two cantillations on one word and one cantillation is on the letter immediately preceding a sheva

shva nach occurs and closes a syllable:
1) after a short vowel     אָ (oh)  אֶ  אִ  אַ  אֻ
2) at the end of a word

Any בגדכפת letter after a shva nach should have a dagesh kal.

By these rules I expect a dagesh to occur in the last letter of these words yet one does not. Can someone explain to me why a dagesh does not occur?

Psalm 145:1  אֲרוֹמִמְךָ
Psalm 145:2   שִׁמְךָ
Genesis 9:5  אֶת-דִּמְכֶם

Does it have to do with shva merahef, which I don't fully understand?
Does it have to do with the last syllable in the word being stressed, so it does not take a dagesh kal?    There are other cases where the last syllable is stressed and the letter in it following a shva does take a dagesh.   וַיִסְגֹּר
Does it have to do with ך כם as a suffix meaning "your"?\

Thank you.


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## Drink

Yes, it's shva merachef.


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## rogerbrewer

Thank you.  Can you point me to a good explanation of when a shva is shva merachef? Or is it simply that if you expect a dagesh to follow and it doesn't, the shva must be shva merachef?


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## utopia

Shva merahef is a historical development, in a phase the Hebrew speakers did not automatically pronounce the BGDKPT with a dagesh.

What happened is that an open syllable with a long vowel shortened to a shva, but a shva "nach" (in sound), that is - the shva closed the syllable. Thus a short vowel and then a shva in some instances in modern Hebrew look like a syllable that is closed with a shva nach, but it has shva merahef, which is a shva nach that comes historically from a vowel, and thus any BGDKPT consonant after it doesn't have a dagesh kal!


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## rogerbrewer

Thank you for your explanation of shva merachef but the time line seems off.  The examples I gave that you identified as shva merachef are from the Tanakh but you refer to the shva merachef as a modern Hebrew phenomenon.  Please clarify.

Thank you.


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## utopia

No. Shva merahef is an ancient phenomenon. There were a number of phases - one in which the Aramaic had influenced the Hebrew language with having a dagesh after a shva nach.

And after that period, not sure when exactly, but during ancient times, came a new phase when the Hebrew speakers didn't automatically pronounce BGDKPT with a dagesh immediately after a shva nach.

Thus there are examples from the lexicon, like the word MALKHUT - מלכות - it hasn't got a gadesh kal in the kaf, so this word is from a time that shva nach did not stipulate an automatic dagesh kal.


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## rogerbrewer

Thank you. That is very helpful information and brings me back to a previous question. Is there any way looking at the consonants and vowels of a word if it will take a shva nach with a dagesh kal in the letter that follows it or if it takes a dagesh merachef with no dagesh?  Or do you simply look if there is or isn't a dagesh and, on that basis, know that the shva is nach or merachef?


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## utopia

There is a way - if you remember by heart all the patterns in which a dagesh kal comes or is omitted:

the penultimate stressed words - those have a dagesh kal in the singular declesion (my, your, his...), but a dagesh merahef in the plural (ילדי הבית, ילדיהם)

and there's specific patterns like KATLUT, that don't take a dagesh - מלכות, סמכות etc...

There are also some words that have R sound after which there is no dagesh kal: שרביט, מרבד - sharVit, marVad.


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## aavichai

There is also a case when  ther is a Dagesh Qal after Sheva Merachef
and that is in words like
לשבור
למכור

and so on...

But there is no Dagesh in the forms of
משבור כשבור and so on...

probably the the forms using the prefix ל=L were so common, that it was considered as "one word" and the so the Dagesh was pronounced


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## rogerbrewer

Thank you very much utopia and aavichai for this extensive explanation.


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