How does one extend the sound of the daleth in the echod of the shema as prescribed in OC 61 (6)?. The letter as we say it does not seem to allow extension. See Dalet (Wikipedia) which defines it as a "a voiced alveolar plosive" and Voiced dental and alveolar stops (Wikipedia) which defines the last term.
Answer
It is possible to prolong a plosive (stop). You will hear some who are very careful with reading the prayers or the Tora pronounce a dagesh chazak (dagesh forte) as a geminate consonant; this is a longer consonant, and can be done even with a stop. (If you ever hear someone speaking Arabic or Italian (tutto), you can hear geminate stops also. Many other languages have them, too.) Essentially, the voice box keeps trying to operate (in the case of a voiced stop like dalet), but whatever is stopping the airflow (the tongue in the case of dalet) stops it for longer. A book on phonetics will explain it better; I recommend Ladefoged, A Course in Phonetics.
However, I don't know that that's what the halacha is referring to when discussing the dalet of "echad". As always, CYLOR with practical questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment