Proper display of Holem in BHS

[Jason_H]

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this display problem. Today when I was reading Proverbs 3:1 in class, I noticed that "Mitsvotah" does not properly locate the Holem vowel. What I mean, the BHS module does not distinguish the difference between a Holem-waw and a waw that should be followed by a Holem. The waw in the word is actually a consonant, and the way it displays, Accordance makes it into a vowel. This is not the way it is displayed in the proper paper version of BHS. It's not an isolated instance. Throughout the module, this is a display problem. Even though a person could figure out that the waw has to be a consonant, it's still wrong to place the dot right over top of the consonant and can cause wrong pronunciation.

[jpkang]

Even though a person could figure out that the waw has to be a consonant, it's still wrong to place the dot right over top of the consonant and can cause wrong pronunciation.

I agree the rendering could be made more precise, but I don't think it is a big problem since even beginning students (should) learn to distinguish the two based on syllabification.

 

I note that SBL Hebrew does not typically distinguish the two, either. Type holem+waw, and it substitutes waw+holem (by design, apparently; see p. 16 of the manual, and the note on the provision for explicitly encoding consonantal waw+holem).

 

Now what if we had a feature to remove the pointing entirely so we can avoid these kinds of issues? Who's with me?

[Anthony Pyles]

Now what if we had a feature to remove the pointing entirely so we can avoid these kinds of issues? Who's with me?

 

It would be great to be able to do this within the program, instead of exporting Unicode stripped of the vowels and cantillation!

[Jason_H]

Thanks for the reply. To be honest, I didn't even know that they appeared different in BHS until I was sitting in class, and my instructor was trying to point it out to us. It's just good to be aware that there is a difference.

[Eleuterio]

I am not sure if I get it right, but in my Accordance I can see in Prov 3:1 a (slight) difference in the position of holem in torat

[Woty Regan]

I agree the rendering could be made more precise, but I don't think it is a big problem since even beginning students (should) learn to distinguish the two based on syllabification.

 

I note that SBL Hebrew does not typically distinguish the two, either. Type holem+waw, and it substitutes waw+holem (by design, apparently; see p. 16 of the manual, and the note on the provision for explicitly encoding consonantal waw+holem).

 

Now what if we had a feature to remove the pointing entirely so we can avoid these kinds of issues? Who's with me?

 

It's a problem for beginning students if they see something wrong in a Bible and think they their understanding of syllabification is wrong rather than realizing that it is a misprint.

 

Also, there are some actual instances of words in BHS that do not follow the standard grammatical rules of words, so displaying words that do follow the rules improperly introduces confusion.