The use of the 'Raphe' - soft

[Marie Lynn]

What would be the difference in pronunciation between a letter that has been doubled in a word, with a Daghes Forte and one that has been omitted? Rather the word is a Raphe, רָפֶה such as with the Hebrew for 'they sought?'

בִּקְּשׁוּ - בִּקְשׁוּ No doubling of the Qof ק in the first. (I am not able to place the short horizontal line to indicate it is a Raphe)
I can understand the (BegadKefat letters) בגדכפת being spirants, or soft pronunciation, but not how the (Qof) ק is able to vary.

Can you give any other examples of the 'Raphe?' and why it would be used instead of the Daghes Forte form which is normally seen with the Piel verb stem, for the word for 'sought?'

Thank you.

 

[yonah_mishael]

If one of these letters (שׁ שׂ ס ק נ מ ל ו &#1497 has a sheva and is followed by a dagesh, it may lose the dagesh (or, it may keep it). You can remember the letters by saying skenemlevy (where the 's' stands for the sibilants shin, sin and samech and the 'k' stands for kof).

מְבַקֵּשׁ "asks for" (masc. sg.)
מְבַקְֿשִׁים "ask for" (masc. pl.) - loss of dagesh indicated by the rafa (line above the letter)

 

[Marie Lynn]

If one of these letters (שׁ שׂ ס ק נ מ ל ו &#1497 has a sheva and is followed by a dagesh, it may lose the dagesh (or, it may keep it). You can remember the letters by saying skenenlevy (where the 's' stands for the sibilants shin, sin and samech and the 'k' stands for kof).

מְבַקֵּשׁ "asks for" (masc. sg.)
מְבַקְֿשִׁים "ask for" (masc. pl.) - loss of dagesh indicated by the rafa (line above the letter)

I think I understand, the Kof therefore retains the hard K sound, but without the dagesh, and sheva it would be a three syllable word such as (Me Vak Shim) for a smoother pronunciation, rather than (Me Vak Ke Shim) if the dagesh were present, right?

Yonah, was that mean't to be skenemlevy, with an (M)? I noticed there is a mem in these letters.

That is a good way to remember.

 

[yonah_mishael]

I think I understand, the Kof therefore retains the hard K sound, but without the dagesh, and sheva it would be a three syllable word such as (Me Vak Shim) for a smoother pronunciation, rather than (Me Vak Ke Shim) if the dagesh were present, right?

Yonah, was that mean't to be skenemlevy, with an (M)? I noticed there is a mem in these letters.

That is a good way to remember.

Yes, skenemlevy. That's what it should be. I'll change it in the original message.

Kof always has the sound of k, whether it has a dagesh or not, so that could never change. It's supposed to represent a smoother pronunciation, yes. Even with the dagesh, though, I would give it a smooth pronunciation. (That's the Israeli way.)