I recently acquired the sefer: EIN LAMIKRA HASHALEIM, a guide to correct pronunciation, specifically in davening and Torah reading. It has been an eye-opener in pointing out many common mistakes that people make and are unaware that there is any problem. From time to time, I'd like to share some of the points in the book with Tt readers and those who attend Israel Center programs. - Phil Ch. Let's not start at the beginning, but rather let's jump right in. Some background first. Hebrew words are accented on the last syllable or the next to the last syllable. The former situation is the more common, and is called MILRA. sha-LOM, not SHA-lom. shab-BAT, not SHAB-bat. ba-RUCH a-TA, not BA-ruch A-ta. The latter situation is called MIL'EIL, and is less common. Most words that are accented MIL'EIL follow specific rules (which we will not go into now). BO-ker, not bo-KER (morning). ME-lech, not me-LECH (king). Statement: Pronouncing a word on the wrong syllable is one of many types of mispronunciation that we will present in this column. Usually, a mispronunciation of this type does not change the meaning of the word, but sometimes it does. When it does change the meaning of the word, the mistake becomes serious. A famous example that Rashi points out from B'reishit 29:6,9 is ba-A (is coming) and BA-a (came). If it happens in Torah reading, it challenges the acceptability of the reading. It can be similarly serious in certain parts of davening. If the word still means the same thing, the mis-accented word just detracts from the beauty of the prayer or reading. Either way, it is worthwhile working on, so that we can enhance our davening and Torah reading. As mentioned earlier, we're jumping into the deep water. There are some words that are regularly pronounced MILRA, but in specific phrases they are to be pronounced MIL'EIL. In the second bracha of the Amida, we have MI cha-MO-cha BA-al g'vu-ROT, u'MI DO-meh LACH... Who is like You?! The word is do-MEH (MILRA, pronounced on the last syllable), but in the phrase followed by LACH, the accent "retreats" to the previous syllable. This is called NASOG ACHOR, a retreating accent. This is the case often (but not always) when the word following the MILRA word is monosyllabic (has only one syllable) or has two syllables and is pronounced MIL'EIL. There are many "candidates" for the retreating accept that don't. In Tanach, the position of the TROP tells us where the accent should be. In the Siddur, words that deviate from the usual are often flagged to help us pronounce them correctly. And to further complicate matters, there are words whose accent retreats, even without the following word causing it. (Check out D'varim 13:5.) The NASOG ACHOR shift of accent is meant to allow for a more pleasant flow of the words. Not doing a NASOG ACHOR does not change the meaning of the word. But we should still try to pronounce words correctly. u'MI do-MEH LACH means the same as u'MI DO-meh LACH, but it isn't the correct way to pronounce the word. Another example of NASOG ACHOR is in Asher Yatzar. u'VA-ra VO, even though the word is ba-RA. And here's one where the accent does NOT retreat, even though it "should". In Kiddush, mik-ra-EI KO-desh (not mik-RA-ei KO-desh, as it would seem to be by the flow of words and the guidelines for NASOG ACHOR). In B'reshit 1:5, "and the darkness He called night, v'la-CHO-shech KA-ra LAI-la... The word is ka-RA. In this context, it is pronounced KA-ra. (If the Baal K'riya reads it ka-RA LAI-la, he should not be stopped. The "mistake" does not change anything. But... Parting (for this issue) note: Some people probably know all of this well. Other people are probably turned off by DIKDUK of any type. Hopefully, there are other other people who will "enjoy" this column. We could use feedback to know what's what. Thanks. [The Vayeira Homepage]
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