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Re: Hebrew spelling

From:Isaac A. Penzev <isaacp@...>
Date:Sunday, September 12, 2004, 17:28
Katav Steg Belsky:
> On Sep 12, 2004, at 4:53 PM, David H wrote: > > Well then, what about words without a yod, such as "Lhitra'ot" > > shouldn't > > it have a yod between the he and tav? The same for mishpakhah...it's > > not > > spelled with a yod between the mem and shin. > > Thanks > > I think that no yud is inserted there because _(le)hit-_ and _mi-_ are > common, easily recognized prefixes.
They shouldn't have yod. The reason is in historic phonology: if two first consonants were vocalized with vocal schwas, the first one turned into hhirek / short [i], and the second one became silent, that is C@C@- > CiC-, so mishpahhah < *m@sh@pahhat. But those [i] are never written. The same is true about such prefixes as hi- and hit-, and adding prepositions: b@- + b@rit > bivrit. Cheers, -- Yitzik