Lesson 10 | Vocab: Conjunctions
[1] Kamatz Hatuph
Finally, let’s talk a little more about kamatz hatuph. (Yes, we are sneaking in just a little grammar to this vocab lesson.) You were introduced to this vowel in Lesson 3. It is marked as a kamatz, but is pronounced “oh” instead of “ah.” Sometimes a shva will be included under the same vowel, and this combination is always pronounced “oh.”
אֳ אָ
But when that is not the case—when you run into what looks like a simple kamatz as on the left, how are you to know if it is really a kamatz hatuph to be pronounced “oh”?
There is a way! Here is the rule:
When a kamatz occurs in a closed, unaccented syllable, it is a kametz hatuph, and pronounced “oh.”
A closed syllable ends in a consonant (e.g. כָּל) whereas an open syllable ends in a vowel (e.g. שָׁ in שָׁמַר). And a syllable is unaccented if it lacks a cantillation mark (e.g. קָרְבָּ֖ן where the accent is on בָּ֖ן and not קָרְ giving the pronunciation of kor-ban).
And as with every rule we present in this course, there are exceptions! Nevertheless, this will help you identify the vast majority of kamatz hatuphs. The reason we waited until now to explain this dynamic is that we did not want to overwhelm you with cantillation marks while you were learning the vowel markings. But you should now be comfortable enough with the vowels such that the addition of cantillation marks isn’t going to throw you off.