Page:Compendious Syriac Grammar.djvu/41

§ 2. At the end of a word we can only have a form from the 2nd column or the 1st, and from the one or the other according as the preceding letter has a form connecting to the left (Col. 3) or not. Forms from Col. 4 can only appear in the interior of a word; while initial forms must be taken from Col. 1 or 3.

Rem. The most judicious course for the beginner will be to impress upon his memory only Cols. 1 and 3.

C. with  is generally written , but initial  with  thus,. For one sometimes puts, and thus draws in this case two words together. In Nestorian script is given for final.

For, as single letters or as ciphers, one generally writes ,.

In manuscripts and  are often mistaken for each other from their resemblance; so is it with  and, and also with  on the one hand and , , , and  on the other. Farther it is frequently difficult to distinguish from a simple, and occasionally even  from a simple. Even in many printed copies and  are far too like one another: farther,  and, and  and  are not sufficiently discriminated.

§ 2. The pronunciation of the letters can of course be determined only approximately. Notice the following: have a twofold pronunciation, one hard, answering to our b g d k p t, one soft, aspirated or rather sibilated. Soft is nearly the German w, or the English and French v; soft  = γ (gh) is nearly the Dutch g (like the Arabic ); soft  = δ (dh) is the English th in there, other; soft  = kh, or the German ch in ach (not that in ich); soft  the German, English, and French f; soft  = θ (th) is the English th in think, both. On the changes of the hard and soft pronunciations v., sqq.

is always the vowel-sounding English w, never the German w, and accordingly it quiesces easily and completely into a u. has also more of a vowel character than the German j, being nearly the English y.