4.15 Rule of Sheva III: Gutturals

When either consonant is a guttural: the first vowel (whether it is the guttural or a non-guttural) becomes the corresponding short vowel of the Hateph vowel

• Note how the “After” form has the short vowel that corresponds to the reduced vowel of the “Before” form - we can consider this the “Hateph copy-cat rule” - take whatever the hateph vowel is and drop the hateph, leaving only the resulting short vowel

Type	After Rule of Sheva	Before
H.Patach/Sheva	עַמְ	עֲמְ*
H.Seghol/Sheva	עֶמְ	עֱמְ*
Sheva/H.Patach	בַּחֲ	בְּחֲ*
Sheva/H.Seghol	בֶּחֱ	בְּחֱ*