Re: Hebrew spelling

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