רָקִיאַע or רָקִיַע

Question

The מנחת שי at the beginning of בראשית (on "יהי רקיע") cites a מחלוקת whether the word 'רָקִיעַ' (and likewise for other words with a פתח גנובה) is pronounced as רָקִיאַע or as רָקִיַע, that is, with a glottal stop or without before the פתח. Does anyone know of a modern source that indicates the appropriate מנהג, or any indication of the most common מנהג (among those who would pronounce רָקִיאַע differently from רָקִיַע)?

Answer 1

Sepharads (and more precisely tuniasian) pronounces Raki-Ya and when the letter before the patah' is a waw then we pronounce wa (like rou-wah'). You can see the Tikoun soferim Ich Matsliah' for further informations

Answer 2

The way I heard it in Yeshiva, it's ru-ach and ko-ach; thus, raki-a'; also, gavo-ah and elo-ah (not gavohah or elohah, though I think Lakewood's BMG spells it as such; the rebbe of mine who told us this was a product of BMG and admitted it was a problem.) I'm assuming the ayins are the same as ches's and heh's.

Has anyone heard otherwise?

Answer 3

In most dikduk sefarim it states that by throat letters (aleph hey ches and ayin) if they are the last letter of a word with a pasach under them they are read as if pasach alef precedes them. I'm sure you know this. This being the case, the correct way would be rakiaa with a pasach alef. Also one of the subrules of this klal is that the word becomes milel meaning the stress is on the beginning of the word. In rakia we say raKIah not rakiAH so I would take that as yet another proof. I will check the Minchas Shai again because I must have forgotten it. Also, who is to say that the ayin does not get pronounced even if there is an alef? Tishma has an ayin at the end with no nikud. Do you say it like it had no ayin or do you need to make the glottal stop anyway. I would assume yes. If so, it would be very hard to diffrentiate between rakia with an alef or without.