חֲלוֹם and חַלּוֹן
- Thread starter nili95
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I believe the חֲלוֹם is the construct or pronominal form. That's why the stress has moved forward, resulting in the first syllable receiving a שווא. Since it happened to be a guttural, it needed a compound שווא, and guttural letters always prefer vowels of the a class. That's why it ended up receiving a חטף פתח.
It's not a construct. Some words just gave shva as part of the word.
I could add though that the root of חלום is חלם, while the root of חלון is חלל, and the ־ון is a suffix. Often in geminate roots (roots whose last two root letters are identical), the last two root letters often combine into one and receive a dagesh chazaq. That is the case in the word חלון.
They're different words, that's why. Simple as that.
I could add though that the root of חלום is חלם, while the root of חלון is חלל, and the ־ון is a suffix. Often in geminate roots (roots whose last two root letters are identical), the last two root letters often combine into one and receive a dagesh chazaq. That is the case in the word חלון.
Sadly, I sometimes have difficulty with the simple.
Thank you. That was most helpful.
Can you think of any grammatical reason for the חטף פתח in חֲלוֹם?
If you're looking for a historical explanation of how that sound originated in this word, the chataf patach is equivalent to the shva, but is found here because of the guttural ח. This means חלום is in the same pattern of words as חמור, זרוע, דרור. The reason these words have a pretonic shva even in the non-construct forms is that they likely historically had a short "i" or "u" vowel in the first syllable, as opposed to a short "a" vowel which would have become a qamatz in non-construct forms, and a shva only in construct forms.
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There are certain rules regarding closed and open syllables. In the word חלון the first syllable is closed because of the dagesh chazaq in the ל, while in the word חלום, the first syllable is open. Really it's because of this that חלון must have a patach, while חלום could theoretically have either chataf patach or qamatz (and in this case it's chataf patach).
So maybe that will clarify things for you.
So maybe that will clarify things for you.
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Rest assured that you're not the only one who gets confused, many singers pronounce the vav before these words in a wrong way.
One could say that that's how we pronounce it in modern Hebrew, but it's not the case: they pronounce VAhallon, it's like overcorrection.
One could say that that's how we pronounce it in modern Hebrew, but it's not the case: they pronounce VAhallon, it's like overcorrection.