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Hebrew Helps: 9-10

© 2010, T. Michael W. Halcomb

Help 9: In Help # 8, we began looking at the process of “cutting words” or

“syllabifying”. Here, we look closer at that process. When dividing Hebrew words in
syllables, we work from the back-end of the word, the left, to the right. This method will
help give us the correct number of syllables and also help us to be able to stress and
annunciate better. We need to know that a syllable must begin with a consonant but can
end with either a consonant OR a vowel. A syllable that begins with a consonant is
identified as open and is marked by the letters “CV” while one that ends with either a
consonant or a vowel is closed and is known as “CVC”. Here are some examples of
“cutting words” or “syllabifying” (remember, when you’re done syllabifying, read the
“CV” marks back from right-to-left):

‫דָּ | בָר‬ ‫ֵמ | אָ | דַ ם‬

Consonant
Consonant
Vowel Consonant
Vowel
Consonant Vowel
Consonant Consonant
Vowel
Vowel
CVC Consonant
CVC VC
VC
VC
CVC
VC CVC
VC
VC
Closed
Open Closed
Open
Open

Help 10: Besides speaking of syllables as open and closed, when a word has an accent,
there are several ways that we define the syllables in relation to the accent, here they are
(bear in mind that the word “Tonic” here means “Tone”):

1) Tonic / Tone Syllable: The syllable with the accent over it

2) PreTonic Syllable: The syllable before the accent
3) Post-Tonic Syllable: The syllable after the accent
4) Pro-PreTonic Syllable: Any & all syllables before the PreTonic Syllable

To use a “crude” example, let’s go back to the above word and simply move the accent
around (though, it actually wouldn’t move to all of these places in real grammar) just to
get a visual for what the “Tonic” Syllables would look like:

1. Tonic = ‫מ‬
ֵ ◌֫ in ‫אָדַ ם ֫◌ ֵמ‬
2. PreTonic = ‫מ‬
ֵ in ‫דַ ם ֫◌ ֵמ ָא‬/ 3. Post-Tonic = ‫ דַ ם‬in ‫ם◌ ֵמ ָא‬
֫ ַ‫ד‬
4. Pro-PreTonic = ‫מ‬ ֵ in ַ‫ם◌מֵאָד‬ ֫
© 2010, T. Michael W. Halcomb