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I learned that a rule of Dageshim is that gutteral letters (אהחע''ר) reject dageshim.

My question is why do we find 17 reishs (1 Samuel 1:6, 1 Samuel 10:24, 1 Samuel 17:25, 2 Kings 6:32, Jeremiah 39:12, Ezekiel 16:4 [×2], Habakkuk 3:13, Psalms 52:5, Proverbs 3:8, Proverbs 11:21, Proverbs 14:10, Proverbs 15:1, Job 39:9, Song of Songs 5:2, Ezra 9:6, 2 Chronicles 26:10) that have dageshim?

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    One idea on the doubled reish can be found here (in Hebrew).
    – magicker72
    May 29, 2015 at 12:06
  • @magicker72 I have seen this before. However, that does not explain why in just these 19 occasions the reish takes a dagesh. May 29, 2015 at 13:17
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  • Though not the main point of the research, this paper could help undermine your stated premise, and perhaps even help explain why echoes of double ר pronunciation might pop up in the particular places you listed.
    – WAF
    Jan 7, 2018 at 19:10

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Reish is originally on of the בג"ד כפ"ת words (see Sefer Hayetzira). A dagesh kal is a phonetic anomaly in where it is more comfortable to pronounce the letter as raphe (not hard), as apposed to mudgash kal (lightly stengthened).

Our modern day "dh", "th", "gh", "ph" etc. stem from this as proven in R' Eliyahu Bachur's book that is translated to latin where the equvalints of the scripted beged kefet is combinations of usuaul letters with an h (with the exception of b, as the pronounciation of Bet rafe or dagush seems to be indistinguishable in latin).

This is caused by an unclosed vowel in a word moving on to the beged kefet letter. But when starting a vowel with a beged kefet letter it will be mudgash. The same priciple can be demonstrated with 'L', where in the beginning of the vowel it will sound hard, and in the middle of a vowel it will be softened.

The abovementioned priciples apply to Riesh (but was forgotten by most throughout the generations) where at the beginning of vowel it will be rolled twice, in the middle-once. This is backed by the hebrew encyclopedia, and by a Yeminite who knows dikduk backwards.

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  • Whether or not this is true, it doesn't answer the question, which asked about the 17 places in the Tiberian tradition marked with a dagesh, which do not follow this rule at all. In fact they all look exactly like dgeshim chazakim
    – Double AA
    Apr 21, 2021 at 12:29
  • The reason these specific Reish's are Mudgash is beacause that's where the mesorah places them. Usually (though it is by no means a rule) when there's an out of place dagesh it comes to emphasise the emotion of the speaker who is emphasising his physical speach (so I was told by a teacher of mine). Apr 22, 2021 at 23:20

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