Shalom! Welcome to another Blackboard
Hebrew video. I'm Tim McNinch and in this video I'll be teaching you everything
you need to know about the dagesh. Stick around to the end because I've
included a little game to help you practice recognizing the different
dageshim and dagesh look-alikes. One thing I should mention at the beginning:
Everything I'm saying here about the dagesh applies both to biblical and modern Hebrew.
In modern, usually the language is written without vowels and other pointing,
except when students are just beginning to learn. These dots are
kind of like pronunciation training wheels. But sometimes even advanced Hebrew
speakers will include the dagesh or other marks just to clarify
pronunciation, and when they do all of these principles apply. So whether you're
learning Hebrew to speak it or to read the Hebrew Bible, this lesson should help
you make sense of all those dang dots! Az, bo-u nat-hil: Let's get started! Now, take a look at this.
It's the opening verse of the Book of Ruth from the Hebrew Bible.
In addition to the letters there are all these sorts of dots and various
squigglies. Most of them are vowel markers, but in this video we're gonna
focus on these: the dots inside the letters. This is the dagesh. But what does
the dagesh do? Well, the truth is, it doesn't do anything! Just like all
the marks that aren't letters, the dagesh doesn't actually do anything. It's
only a marker or a flag to get your attention. I like to think of it kind of
like a pronunciation asterisk. It tells you that when you're reading a word
aloud, you need to pay attention to the sound of this letter. For example, in this
word—hammelekh—the dagesh in the letter mem is there to alert us to the fact
that this letter is doubled, that is, it's sounded twice. If you were to
transliterate this with English letters it would look like this... and the double M
(ham-melekh) helps us to know where to divide the syllables when we pronounce it.
But instead of writing two mems, in Hebrew we just use one mem, and we give it a dot.
Again, the dot doesn't do anything... It just reminds us that the mem is actually
two mems. This kind of dagesh, the one that alerts you to a doubled letter, is
known by its Latin name (in grammar speak) as the "dagesh forte," or in Hebrew, the
"dagesh hazaq," which means "strong." You can think of it as being strong enough
to squeeze two letters into one—though of course the dagesh isn't actually
doing the squeezing. It's just telling you that the squeezing has been done.
Here are a couple other things that you should know about the dagesh hazaq.
Most letters in the Hebrew alphabet can be doubled, except for five: aleph, heh, het,
ayin, and resh. These are known as guttural letters because their sound is formed in
the back of the throat, making them very difficult—if not impossible—to double.
So you'll never see a doubling dot, that is a dagesh hazaq in these. However, any
other letter in the alefbet can be doubled and so you'll find the
dagesh hazaq in any of them. So that's the dagesh hazaq. There is another kind of dagesh, with the
Latin name, "lene," or in Hebrew, "dagesh qal," which means "light" or perhaps "weak" in
contrast to the dagesh hazaq. The dagesh qal doesn't mark doubled letters. But it does
flag something about the sound of the letter in which it's found. So here's a
common Hebrew word. Its first letter, bet, has the dagesh qal because it's a letter
that has two possible pronunciations: "be" and "ve." That means we need to know
whether to pronounce this word "beged" or "veged." That's what the dagesh qal is
here for—to tell us that this word is pronounced: "beged."
There are actually six Hebrew letters with two potential
pronunciations or articulations: bet, gimel, dalet, kaf, peh, and tav.
Together these are known by the acronym "BeGeD KeFeT," which means something like
"knotted up clothing" in Hebrew. But really the phrase is only ever used for the acronym
that's made by these six letters. Whenever these letters are marked with a
dagesh, it signals that they're pronounced with a hard sound: be, ge, de,
ke, pe, or te. In grammar speak these are known as "plosive" articulations
because of the little explosion of air that you make by stopping and starting
the airflow. You can actually feel this 'plosion if you hold your hand right in
front of your mouth as you say them: be... de... pe... But without the dagesh
these letters are pronounced with a softer sound: ve, ghe, dhe, khe, fe, the.
This is called "spirantized" articulation because its sound is produced by the
same mouth shape as the plosive but with a smooth, continual flow of air. Now to
make things a bit more complicated, three of these spirants (for gimel, dalet, and tav)
fell out of use somewhere along the way and in most dialects of modern Hebrew
you'll only hear the plosive articulation for them—whether or not
there's a dagesh there. The grammatical difference is still there,
just not the pronunciation difference. But don't worry about that too much. Just
know that in any of these six letters, if you see the dagesh, they get the
plosive version. And if you see a bet, kaf, or peh without the dagesh, they
are pronounced with the spirant version: ve, khe, fe. So those are our two dageshim:
the dagesh hazaq, or forte, and the dagesh qal, or lene.
But you know what? They look absolutely identical! So how do we tell them apart?
Here's how it works: In the alefbet, remember that you never get a dagesh of
either kind in the gutturals, so you don't have to worry about them, and here
are our six begedkefets, the only letters that can take a dagesh qal.
So if you see a dagesh in any other letter, you know for sure that it's a
dagesh hazaq, marking a doubled letter. This only gets complicated when there's
a dagesh in one of the begedkefets. In that case, it could be either dagesh,
and we have to think about it a little more. The easy trick here is to look
in the rear view mirror... see what came immediately before the letter with
the dagesh. For example, here's that first verse of Ruth again, and here's a
dagesh in the bet of "bi-mei." If we look behind it, it's preceded by this
yod. So here's the rule: in a begedkefet letter, following any consonant or
a sheva, the dagesh is always a qal. No doubled letter—it's just signaling the
hard, plosive sound. Okay, here's another one in the bet of "mib-beit." Right before
the bet is this hiriq, a vowel. The rule here is: if the dagesh follows a vowel
it's a dagesh hazaq. It's letting us know that this bet is actually a double
letter. Well, let's check the others here just for practice... Here's another bet in
"bis-dei." Look in the rear view and there's a resh, a consonant. So the dagesh
is a qal. One more in the tav of "ve-'ish-to." Look in their rear view, and here's a
sheva. So this is also a dagesh qal. Make sense? All right, well before we end
I need to introduce you to a couple of imposters, "dagesh doppelgängers."
There are a couple of these dagesh look-alikes, dots in letters that are
not actually dageshim. Take a look at this: it's another verse from the beginning of Ruth, and here at the end of the first
word is a vav with a dot... (there's actually two of them in this word). Now,
even though it looks like a dagesh it's not actually a dagesh. But it's
doing the same thing as a dagesh. It's alerting us—like like an asterisk—
to something unusual about the pronunciation of this letter. A vav
with a dot can indicate a doubled "ve" sound. But much more often, it's signaling
a vowel sound, an "U" sound. This is called the "shuruq" and you can hear that "U"
sound in its name, shuruq. I don't want to get too far into the weeds on this...
But just so you know, you can tell a shuruq apart from a doubled vav by looking
again in the rear view mirror. If it's preceded by a consonant, like this
one is by a tav, then it's a shuruq. But don't get too hung up on memorizing that
rule and its exceptions. It'll actually be quite rare that you come across
a doubled vav— unless your name happens to be David...
But anyway, moving on... The other dagesh doppelgänger is this one here: a heh with
a dot. "Now wait a sec," I can hear you yelling at the screen,
"heh is a guttural letter, and you said that they never get a dot!" Well, heh never
gets a dagesh, but this isn't a dagesh. It is a "mappiq." Much like a dagesh,
the mappiq is signaling that there's something notable about this
letter. Usually a heh at the end of the word is indicating a feminine ending
with an "ahh" sound. Without a dot in this heh, the word would be "u-me-'ishah,"
"and from a woman" (the word 'ishah means "woman"). But the dot—the mappiq—tells
us, no, this heh isn't just an "ah" ending. It's actually a consonantal heh. It has
meaning, and in this case it's a possessive ending attached to the word
'ish, meaning "man." So this word doesn't mean "and from a woman." With the mappiq
it means "and from her man" (the heh signals the possessive, "her"). Alright,
enough on that. Let's review and play our game. Here are our four dots. The dagesh
hazaq signals a doubled consonant; it never appears in the guttural letters;
and you can identify it because it always follows a vowel of some sort. The
dagesh qal only shows up in begedkefet letters; it signals a hard, plosive
pronunciation; and you can tell it from the hazaq because the qal always
follows a consonant or a sheva. The shuruq isn't a dagesh. It's a vav with
a dot; it signals an "U" vowel; and it always follows a consonant. And finally,
the mappiq. It's a heh with a dot; it signals a heh that functions as a
consonant with meaning—not just a vowel sound; and it usually indicates a
possessive suffix. Great! So let's wrap up with a game. First, let's make things look
a bit more festive... and let's stick a countdown timer up here... We'll put up
another text from the beginning of Ruth and we'll get rid of our answer dots
here. So, here's how this game works: I'll circle a dot (like this one in vat-tish-shena),
and then I'll give you five seconds to figure out which dot it is
before I reveal the answer. Now, this one follows a vowel... so
it's a dagesh hazaq. Alright, you're up! Next we have this kaf in vat-tiv-keina.
Ready? Alright... It follows a sheva... so it's a qal. How'd
you do on that one? Alright, next... Aha, there's a dot in that
shin. Hmm... It's not a begedkefet... so
automatically it must be a dagesh hazaq. Next: peh... it's a begedkefet and it
follows a sheva... so it must be a qal. Alright, you're doing great! Next: okay, a
heh with a dot in it. Oh, wait a minute! It's a guttural... Oh yeah, heh with a dot:
that's the mappiq! You got that, I'm sure. Next we have this
one... Hmm... a vav with a dot, and it follows a consonant... must be the good ol'
shuruq! In fact, this is "ve-rut." Rut [Ruth] is the title character of the book. Okay,
let's keep going. Okay, this is a dalet with a dot. It's a begedkefet and it
follows a consonant... Hmm... okay that's a qal. Next we have this heh with a dot...
Yeah, that's easy... heh with a dot: that's a mappiq. Okay, a few more here. Okay, this is a dot
in a nun. That's not a begedkefet... You got it!
Dagesh hazaq. Okay, tav... Look in the rear view mirror.
What do you see? Yep, a sheva. So... it's a qal.
Hmm... heh with a dot? That one's easy, right? It's the mappiq. Alright, see that vav with a dot? Follows a consonant...
It's a shuruq! Alright, almost done... last one... It's a begedkefet... follows a sheva... Dagesh qal! Awesome! You did it! Nice work! Alright, that brings us to the end.
Thanks for watching the video. Like, follow, bell, all that jazz... But most
importantly, love your Hebrew!
