New answers tagged grammar-dikduk
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I can't give a full answer, but here's the start of one.
"Achat" (אחת) is structurally an adjective, with the "-at" one often finds as a suffix. So it makes sense that it follows the usual rule for adjectives -- "achat" with the feminine suffix is used for feminine nouns.
The fact that "echad" and "achat" are ...
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The words אתה and עתה both have "minor" pausal forms אַ֔תָּה and עַ֔תָּה, that occur only at lesser disjunctives: tipḥa x5, zaqef qaton x23, pashta x2, and revi'a x2; and in the poetic books: etnaḥ x4 and revi'a gadol x1. The full pausal forms never appear at these disjunctives.
Why other words do not have a minor pausal form, that I can't tell you....
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In Talmud Yerushalmi Megillah Ms. Leiden (פרק א, משנה ח) there is a discussion of the names of G-d, which includes the the earliest spelling of the letter צ to my knowledge: צד'י בי'ת מצבאות.
Other early sources include manuscripts of Bavi Shabbat 12:3 ("צד'י"), Bereshit Rabbat 1:11 ("צאד'י"), Sefer Yetsirah 52 ("צד'י") and some ...
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Ibn Ezra refers to it as "tzadik", e.g. in his commentary to Exodus 2:3.
ונדגש צדי"ק הצפינו כדגשות קו"ף אם יקרך עון לדבר בם צחות ובעבור היות הצדי"ק בשו"א נע נרפה הפ"א שהיה ראוי להדגש והוא שם הפועל מהבנין הכבד הנוסף
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From The Wisdom of the Hebrew Alphabet by Rabbi Michael Munk, page 189:
The proper name of the eighteenth letter of the Aleph-Beis is צדי, tzaddi, but is commonly called צדיק, tzaddik. According to Magen David, the tzaddik results from a run-on pronunciation of the two letters tzaddi kuf, which, when spoken rapidly, sounds like tzaddik-kuf. An additional ...
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It's worth looking at the "alef binah" agadata gemara over there in Shabbos 104a:
צד"י כפופה וצד"י פשוטה ־ צדיק כפוף צדיק פשוט. היינו נאמן כפוף נאמן
פשוטִ
Rashi:
נאמן כפוף ־ אדם כשר צריך להיות כפוף ועניו, וסופו להיות פשוט וזקוף
לעולם הבא
"Bent tzadi, straight tzadi [= final tzadi], a tzaddik bent over, a tzaddik standing straight: ...
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The Gemara (Shabbos 103b) refers to the letter as צד"י.
וכתבתם שתהא כתיבה תמה שלא יכתוב אלפין עיינין עיינין אלפין ביתין כפין
כפין ביתין גמין צדין צדין גמין וכו'
The earliest source I have found for the variant spelling is Rashi (Menachos 29b), who refers to the letter as צדי"ק.
והוא הדין לצדיק כפופה ולנון פשוטה
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The Midrash Lekach Tov by R' Tuviah ben Eliezer teaches exactly the idea you have mentioned regarding the additional letter ה:
הביאה לי ציד [וגו'] ואברככה – מלא על שם העולם הזה שנברא בה"א. לכך הוסיף לו ה' ואברככה. שיתברך בזה ולא לעתיד.
Bring me some game [...] that I may bless you – [It is written with the] plene orthography, because of this world ...
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Rav Aharon Lopiansky, in his amazing siddur called Aliyos Eliyahu, has a section on the bottom called Mesores HaTefillah. There he explains the sources for the parts of the siddur, and variant readings.
On the word למנצח, he writes:
מ' בשווא נח עפ"י כתר ארם צובה וברוו"ה שווא נע
The Mem has a resting sheva, according to the Aleppo Codex. Rav Wolf ...
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