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In most siddurim I've seen, the word "ונחמתא" in kaddish is written "וְנֶחֱמָתָא," with a סגול ("eh" sound) under the ח.

However, someone recently told me that a certain (very trustworthy) rabbi believes that the word should be pronounced with a קמץ (an "uh" sound) under the ח.

Is either nikkud more correct? If so, why?

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    In the singular (נחמתא), Jastrow has a segol, and Sokoloff (Babylonian) has a qamats. The Syriac is with a segol. – magicker72 Nov 17 '14 at 4:07
  • @magicker72 Interesting! ....is there a possible reason for one to be preferred over the other? i.e., is either more correct (possibly more correct in context of the rest of kaddish?) – MTL Nov 17 '14 at 4:09
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    teimoni/babylonian pronunciation doesnt contain segol. they pronounce the segol as a qoma9. therefore writing the word with a segol or qoma9 for teimonim/bablim would be the same. it would be pronounced na7amotho. – MoriDowidhYa3aqov Nov 17 '14 at 8:47
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    Related: judaism.stackexchange.com/q/66414 – msh210♦ Dec 20 '15 at 2:53
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    @DannySchoemann EidOt. They're people, not testimony. – Double AA♦ May 13 '16 at 5:43

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