Explanations regarding the romanization of he-he-dalet-yod-resh, the Hiphil of he-dalet-resh.
The word should be romanized "hehedir," because in Alcalay's Milon
'Ivri-Angli shalem, 1964-1965, it is pointed with a sheva under the second
he. Hebraica Cataloging (on both p. 16 and p. 63) names this dictionary
as the authority for identifying shevas which must be represented by the
character "e" in standard ALA/LC romanization.
In this case, when we deduce from Alcalay's entry that the sheva under
the second he of "hehedir" must be represented
by an "e" in romanization, we are not endorsing a theory that this
sheva in this Hiphil 3rd person singular perfect verb is "na'" and
not "nah." We are simply following the guidelines in Hebraica Cataloging
for determining the correct romanization of a sheva-- that is, to
romanize a sheva as "e" if Alcalay prints it.
We use and recommend the romanizations which follow from the guidelines in Hebraica Cataloging in order to maintain a standard which can be imitated by anyone who consults and follows the same guidelines. Most cases covered by the guideline making Alcalay the authority on romanization of sheva concern loanwords from other languages into Hebrew. We hope to give further consideration to the possibility of excluding native Hebrew words from its scope.
Concerning the possibility that the sheva printed in Alcalay's
"hehedir" is a typographical error, it should be noted that he consistently
punctuates this and a few other Hiphils and Niphals from first-he roots
with a similar sheva in other editions of his dictionaries, both
Hebrew-English and Hebrew-Hebrew.