Aramaic Annotations: Pt.

7
© 2010, T. Michael W. Halcomb | www.MichaelHalcomb.com

1. That Dang Dagesh!: By now, we have encountered the dagesh. As we

know, the dagesh appears in the center of a consonant. Here are some examples:
‫טּ | יּ| כּ |אּ‬
2. The “Hard” Dagesh: As we have already seen, one of the functions of a
dagesh is that it indicates the “hard” pronunciation of a letter. For instance, a
3. bet(h) with a dagesh inside it is pronounced “b” while a bet(h) without a dagesh is
pronounced soft, as a “v”. Refer to “Annotations” part 3 for more on this.
4. The Doubling Dagesh: Along with the “hard” pronunciation aspect,
another function of the dagesh is that it can indicate when a letter is to be doubled.
The general rule for discerning when the letter is to be doubled or not is twofold:
1. If there’s a dot inside, double it, but…
2. If the dagesh is inside one of the BeGaDKePhaT letters,
make sure that it is preceded by a vowel, otherwise, do not
double it.
5. Examples: Here are some helpful examples:
Double Do not double
‫כַּתֵּ ב‬: katteb ‫דָּ בָר‬: davar
‫ ִצוָּה‬: ṣiwwah ָ‫אָ ַהבְתּ‬: ’ahavta
‫צַדִּ יק‬: ṣaddiq ‫ ֶבּגֶד‬: beged
‫עַמּוּד‬: ‘ammūwd

*Note: It is common practice to refer to the doubling dagesh as a

dagesh forte and the non-doubling as a dagesh lene.