Contents of this weekly column are (mostly) 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.

One more time (probably not the last) for GIMMEL -YUD-ALEF, meaning valley. 36 occurrences in Tanach, the most unusual of which is in Yeshayahu 40:4 (in the haftara of Shabbat Nachamu). This is the one that caught our interest in recent weeks. The GIMMEL has a SEGOL under it. No vowel appears under the YUD (and, of course, none under the ALEF). The question is - do we sound the YUD or not.

At first, both R. Nissan Sharoni, author of EIM LAMIKRA HASHALEIM (and therefore the “father” of this column) and the secretary of the Academiya L’Lashon Ha-Ivrit said that the YUD is pronounced and the word sounds like GEI (very much the same as Ashkenazim pronounce the word when the GIMMEL has a TZEIREI, which it does in 24 times in Tanach.

But then it was pointed out (by each of the abovementioned consultants) that they were Yemenites. Each told TBDATR that Ashkenazim and S’faradim do not pronoounce the YUD when there is a TZEIREI or a SEGOL under the GIMMEL.

Everyone pronounces the YUD when the GIMMEL has a PATACH (9 times in Tanach) or a KAMATZ (twice). In 10 of those 11 GAIs (two of which would be GOI in Ashkenazis) there is a SH’VA NACH under the YUD. This, of course, makes the sounding of the YUD an obvious fact. The unanswered question at this moment is the one GAI (like guy) where the YUD has no SH’VA - Nechemya 2:13. Does that make it sound any different from the other 10 “guys” in Tanach?

Okay, here’s a first answer. And we’re doing it this was, rather than just erasing most of the last paragraph, in order to make a point. Checking the Koren Tanach, there is a SH’VA under the YUD in the GAI of SH’AR HA-GAI in that pasuk in Nechemya, as there is in all the other references. So too in the other Tanach checked. So where did we get the idea that one GUY was SH’VA-less? From the computer database that did the original searches for GIMMEL-YUD-ALEF. The SH’VA is not in the Nechemya 2:13 by mistake (probably). The point? Computer databases are not perfect.

Results have to be checked and double checked with printed Tanachs. Not that there aren’t mistakes or discrepancies sometimes in various Tanachs.
Back to our two Yemenite sources for the unique GE (as in GET without the T) of Nachamu’s haftara. Both contacted the TBDATR office and acknowledged that the Yemenite pronunciation is in error (but that’s how they pronounce the word nonetheless) and that the Ashkenazi and S’faradi way of not sounding the YUD is correct (seems to be correct, probably is correct, or something like that).

Okay, all of you who will get Maftir on Shabbat Nachamu. The word in the 4th pasuk is GE, not GEI - unless we discover new information on the subject.

One more loose end of the valley word is that GAI is supposed to be the word for valley when it stands alone and GEI is supposed to be “valley of”. Which is usually the case. Psalm 23, B’GEI TZALMAVET, the valley of Tzalmavet (or the valley of the shadow of death, if you use the meaning of the word Tzalmavet on translation). Our GE would seem to be a variant of GEI, but it has the meaning of the stand-alone valley, not a connective one. Does that make it a variant form of GAI, rather than GEI? Don’t know yet.
Is all this important? Relative to many other things, it isn’t. But this column is about fine tuning. About paying closer attention to what we daven and what we read in the Torah (or haftara). Sure, sometimes we get carried away. You might say that’s par for the course. <more to come>

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