Column #35. Contents of this weekly column are based on the sefer: EIM LAMIKRA HASHALEIM, by R' Nissan Sharoni, Ashdod, a guide to correct pronunciation of Hebrew, specifically in davening and Torah reading.
We’ll let the LA-SECHVI issue ride one more week. People have been calling in what they find pronunciation-wise in different Siddurim. The results in that department are close to an even split between MIL’EIL (as it is in Tanach) and MILRA (as it seems to be in the dictionary and by the “normal” rules of DIKDUK.

Feedback on the review of the many lessons of past weeks has been encouraging. People have told me that they are paying more attention to their davening because of this TBD&TR column.

Here’s more...
ho-DU (MILRA, accent on last syllable, not HO-du, which many people say). And speaking of ho-DU, when the Torah is being returned to the Aron and the SHA”TZ has said GADLU LASHEM ITI... the congregation answers ho-DO AL ERETZ V’SHAMAYIM... In this case, the first word is hoDO, not the more common hoDU. This too is a mistake you will here many people make. (Of course, not those who read this column.)

HODU LASHEM KIR-U VISHMO. That’s KIR-U, not KIRU. And it’s VISHMO, not BISHMO.

Further in HODU - AL TIGGG’U. The GIMMEL has a DAGESH CHAZAK and needs to be emphasized so that the word does not come out as TI-GU or TIG-U.

Still in HODU (but this is an important reminder for that which occurs throughout davening) — SAPP’RU VAGOYIM ET K’VODO. If one does not pause between VAGOYIM and ET, it comes out VAGOYIM MET (as in dead). Whenever a word ending in MEM is followed by ET, one should pause briefly so as not to attach the MEM to the beginning of ET. The SH’MA has many of these. V’SAMTEM ET, UK-SHARTEM OTAM (not MOTAM, their death), V’LIMADTEM OTAM ET (there’s twice in a three-word sequence), UR-ITEM OTO, UZ-CHARTEM ET, VA-ASITEM OTAM, VA-ASITEM ET, and elsewhere.

Less severe, but also something to watch out for would be a phrase like, UCH-TAVTAM AL, not MAL. Same caution, but without producing another word like MET, MOTO, MOTAM. Similarly, there are words ending in other letters that can attach themselves to the following word beginning with an ALEF. ASHER ANOCHI can sound like ASHERANOCHI or ASHE RANOCHI. RANOCHI might not be a word, but it is a sloppy way to daven, nonetheless.

Back to HODU for the pasuk that many siddurim caution us to say carefully. But that caution does not go far enough. KI (1) KOL (2) ELOHEI HA’AMIM (3) ELILIM (4) VADONAI SHAMAYIM (5) ASA. The pause at (1) needs to be there because without it, the phrase would be KI CHOL, with the DAGESH dropping from the KAF, which it doesn’t. KI (pause) KOL... (2) is a brief pause to prevent the word from sounding LEILOHEI, with the LAMED of KOL attaching to the following word. Similarly, pausing at (3) prevents the word from sounding like MELILIM. Then we come to (4). This is the pause that most Siddurim mention. It serves as a L’HAVDIL. For the gods of the nations are idols (big pause), but (l’havdil) HaShem made the Heavens. And pausing at (5), like its predecessors (2) and (3), prevents the last word in the pasuk from sounding like MASA.

Here’s one from Mizmor, Shir Chanukat Habayit, L’David (which in Nusach Ashkenaz is before HODU - but we’ll cut the author of EIM L’MIKRA HASHALEIM a little slack). MI-YA-R’DI VOR. There is a DAGESH CHAZAK in the first YUD. That allows the first syllable to be MI. The KAMATZ under the YUD is GADOL, which allows that syllable to be YA (without a closing consonant), and the SH’VA under the REISH is NA and belongs with the following syllable. <mtc>

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