# חֲלוֹם and חַלּוֹן



## nili95

These words seem so similar (save for the final consonant). Why the difference in vocalization, i.e., why חֲל vs xחַלּ? Thanks.


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## Ali Smith

I believe the חֲלוֹם is the construct or pronominal form. That's why the stress has moved forward, resulting in the first syllable receiving a שווא. Since it happened to be a guttural, it needed a compound שווא, and guttural letters always prefer vowels of the a class. That's why it ended up receiving a חטף פתח.


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## Drink

It's not a construct. Some words just gave shva as part of the word.



nili95 said:


> These words seem so similar (save for the final consonant). Why the difference in vocalization, i.e., why חֲל vs xחַלּ? Thanks.



They're different words, that's why. Simple as that.

I could add though that the root of חלום is חלם, while the root of חלון is חלל, and the ־ון is a suffix. Often in geminate roots (roots whose last two root letters are identical), the last two root letters often combine into one and receive a dagesh chazaq. That is the case in the word חלון.


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## nili95

Drink said:


> They're different words, that's why. Simple as that.


Sadly, I sometimes have difficulty with the simple. 



Drink said:


> I could add though that the root of חלום is חלם, while the root of חלון is חלל, and the ־ון is a suffix. Often in geminate roots (roots whose last two root letters are identical), the last two root letters often combine into one and receive a dagesh chazaq. That is the case in the word חלון.


Thank you. That was most helpful.

Can you think of any grammatical reason for the חטף פתח in חֲלוֹם?


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## Drink

nili95 said:


> Can you think of any grammatical reason for the חטף פתח in חֲלוֹם?


 If you're looking for a historical explanation of how that sound originated in this word, the chataf patach is equivalent to the shva, but is found here because of the guttural ח. This means חלום is in the same pattern of words as חמור, זרוע, דרור. The reason these words have a pretonic shva even in the non-construct forms is that they likely historically had a short "i" or "u" vowel in the first syllable, as opposed to a short "a" vowel which would have become a qamatz in non-construct forms, and a shva only in construct forms.


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## nili95

Thank you.


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## Drink

There are certain rules regarding closed and open syllables. In the word חלון the first syllable is closed because of the dagesh chazaq in the ל, while in the word חלום, the first syllable is open. Really it's because of this that חלון must have a patach, while חלום could theoretically have either chataf patach or qamatz (and in this case it's chataf patach).

So maybe that will clarify things for you.


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## nili95

I greatly appreciate your expertise.


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## utopia

Rest assured that you're not the only one who gets confused, many singers pronounce the vav before these words in a wrong way.

One could say that that's how we pronounce it in modern Hebrew, but it's not the case: they pronounce VAhallon, it's like overcorrection.


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