Dagesh

Prior to the

The letters take on their hard sounds when they have no vowel sound before them, and take their soft sounds when a vowel immediately precedes them. In Biblical Hebrew this was the case within a word and also across word boundaries, though in Modern Hebrew there are no longer across word boundaries, since the soft and hard sounds are no longer allophones of each other, but regarded as distinct phonemes.

When vowel diacritics are used, the hard sounds are indicated by a central dot called dagesh, while the soft sounds lack the mark. In Modern Hebrew, however, the dagesh only changes the pronunciation of ב‎ bet, כ‎ kaf, and פ‎ pe. Traditional

When the letter he (ה‎) is the final letter of a word, it is usually silent and indicates the presence of a word-final vowel. However, when it receives a dagesh kal, the he is pronounced instead of being silent. This is the rule in historic pronunciation, but this rule is generally ignored in Modern Hebrew. Nevertheless, a non-silent word-final hey (הּ‎) can take a furtive patach.

Pronunciation

Among Modern Hebrew speakers, the pronunciation of some of the above letters has become the same as others:

Dagesh hazaq

Dagesh ḥazak or dagesh ḥazaq (דגש חזק, lit. 'strong dot', i.e. 'gemination dagesh', or דגש כפלן, also 'dagesh

• The letter follows the definite article, the word "the". For example, שָׁמָיִם (shamayim, 'heaven(s)') in Genesis 1:8^[4] is הַשָּׁמַיִם (hashshamayim, 'the heaven(s)') in Genesis 1:1.^[5] This is because the definite article was originally a stand-alone particle הַל (hal), but at an early stage in ancient Hebrew it contracted into a prefix הַ (ha-), and the loss of the ל‎ 'l' was compensated for by doubling the following letter.^[6] In this situation where the following letter is a guttural, the vowel in 'ha-' becomes long to compensate for the inability to double the next letter - otherwise, this vowel is almost always short. This also happens in words taking the prefix לַ la-, since it is a prefix created by the contraction of לְ le- and הַ ha-. Occasionally, the letter following a he which is used to indicate a question may also receive a dagesh, e.g. Numbers 13:20 הַשְּׁמֵנָה הִוא (Hashshemena hu?, 'whether it is fat').^[7]
• The letter follows the prefix מִ‎ mi- where this prefix is an abbreviation for the word min, meaning 'from'. For example, the phrase "from your hand", if spelled as two words, would be מִן יָדֶךָ (min yadekha). In Genesis 4:11 however, it occurs as one word: מִיָּדֶךָ miyyadekha. This prefix mostly replaces the usage of the particle מִן (min) in modern Hebrew.
• The letter follows the prefix שֶׁ 'she-' in modern Hebrew, which is a prefixed contraction of the relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (asher), where the first letter is dropped and the last letter disappears and doubles the next letter. This prefix is rare in Biblical texts, and mostly replaces the use of asher in Modern Hebrew.
• It marks the doubling of a letter that is caused by a weak letter losing its vowel. In these situations, the weak letter disappears, and the following letter is doubled to compensate for it. For example, compare
  Lamed
  only behaves as a weak letter in this particular root word.
• If the letter follows a
  Deuteronomy 31:1 וַיֵּלֶך (vayyelekh, 'he went'). A possible reason for this doubling is that the וַ (va-) prefix could be the remains of an auxiliary verb
  הָוַיַ (hawaya, the ancient form of the verb הָיָה hayah, 'to be') being contracted into a prefix, losing the initial ha, and the final ya syllable disappearing and doubling the next letter.
• In some of the
  binyan
  verbal stems, where the pi'el, pu'al and hitpa'el stems themselves cause doubling in the second root letter of a verb. For example:
  • Exodus 15:9 אֲחַלֵּק (achallek, 'I shall divide'), pi'el-stem, first person future tense
  • in the phrase הָלֵּלוּ יַהּ (hallelu yah, 'praise the LORD'), where hallelu is in the pi'el-stem, masculine plural imperative form
  • Genesis 47:31 וַיִּתְחַזֵּק (vayyitchazzek, 'he strengthened himself'), hitpa'el-stem