Vocalization of shewa after article and conjunction

[David Lee]

Hi,

I was wondering how you pronounce the shewa that follows an article or conjunction. For example, in הַמְרַגְּלִים, is the מְ a vocal or silent shewa?

According to regular pronunciation rules, it should be silent since it follows a short vowel, but I wasn't sure if the shewa rules extend to the whole construct or only the noun without the article.

[Kirk Lowery]

I would read it "silent". Each masoretic word is a single intonational unit, so prefixes and suffixes would be pronounced according to the same rules.

You don't cite a text reference, so I assume that the lack of a dagesh in the mem is a typo.

By the way, welcome to B-Hebrew!

[Ken M. Penner]

This word occurs in Joshua 6:22, 23, without the dagesh.
וְלִשְׁנַיִם הָאֲנָשִׁים הַֽמְרַגְּלִ֤יםאֶת־הָאָרֶץ אָמַר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בֹּאוּ בֵּית־הָאִשָּׁה הַזּוֹנָה וְהוֹצִיאוּ מִ‍שָּׁם אֶת־הָאִשָּׁה וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־לָהּ כַּ‍אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתֶּם לָהּ׃
וַיָּבֹאוּ הַנְּעָרִים הַֽמְרַגְּלִ֗יםוַיֹּצִיאוּ אֶת־רָחָב וְאֶת־אָבִיהָ וְאֶת־אִמָּהּ וְאֶת־אַחֶיהָ וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־לָהּ וְאֵת כָּל־מִשְׁפְּחוֹתֶיהָ הוֹצִיאוּ וַיַּנִּיחוּם מִ‍חוּץ לְמַחֲנֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל׃
Note the metheg.

2) The dagesh is often(Cf. Dotan 1967: 364) omitted from the preformative מof the participle Piel and Pual, e.g. הַמְכַסֶּה

B) A dagesh forte which would have been demanded by a consonant followed by shva “mobile” is often omitted, no doubt because in some cases there was a disinclination to make a long consonant depend on such a weak vowel. This is therefore a case of semi-gemination or weak germination (§ b).
The suspension of strong gemination, in other words, the shortening of the long consonant into an intermediate one before a shva, occurs especially in the following cases:
...
2) Regularly with an initial מof the Piel and Pual participle after the definite article, e.g. הַמְבַקֵּשׁ(perhaps in order to avoid two dageshs) (§ 35c).

[Kirk Lowery]

Ken,

Okay, I knew that.

So, going back to the OP's question: in this case is the shewa vocal or silent? Normally, with the doubled mem, the first would be silent, then second vocal. I'd vote for vocal...

[David Lee]

Just for reference, in Chapter 5 (Definite Article and Conjunction Waw) of Basic of Biblical Hebrew 2nd Edition, there's a section titled "The Article with Initial יְ and מְ" says:

Note that the Shewa under the first consonant of the noun remains a Vocal Shewa by analogy to the basic form of the article with Daghesh Forte.

It sounds like even though there's no doubling of the מ, the shewa pronunciation should remain as if the מ was doubled, which would mean vocal shewa. Am I reading that correctly? Is the book correct in that regard? I'm surprised since this exception to the shewa pronunciation rule would be based on semantics rather than syntax (the reader must understand that the initial הַ is the article, and thus expect the מְ to have a semi-gemination and vocalize the shewa). This implies that written Hebrew cannot be properly pronounced without first knowing what it means.