Page:Compendious Syriac Grammar.djvu/49

§ 17. The feminine plural-forms of the finite verb and of the predicative adjective take, e. g. "they (fem.) wrote",  "they (fem.) write" (Impf.),  "are good (f.)". Only, these points are generally wanting, when the 3rd pl. fem. in the perfect is written like the 3rd sing. masc. (§ 50 B).

With the numerals there is a good deal of fluctuation. The rule that only feminine numbers of the second decade,—because they end in the plural in ē,—are to be supplied with, is seldom strictly followed. Numerals with generally take ; farther, all which end in ,—in particular,  "two". The plural sign is the rule in numerals which have a possessive suffix (§ 149).

C. Generally speaking, a tolerable uniformity is found,—and that in old manuscripts,—only in cases under A; in cases under B, these manuscripts often omit the sign, where it should stand, and employ it instead in other cases, but without consistency, e. g. in the masc. of the finite verb, as "they (masc.) found";  "that they (masc.) may be sanctified".

D. The position of the points was not thoroughly determined: most frequently they were permitted to rest upon the third or fourth letter from the end of the word. Much depends here on the fancy of the writer; the position most favoured is over those letters which do not rise high above the line. With the point of the letter the plural sign generally blends into, e. g.  "lords" ;  "true" ; still there are found also  "revered",  "twenty",  "villages", and many others.

§ 17. Here and there a line over the letter is found as a sign of the want of a vowel, e. g. pe̊leγ "were divided", as contrasted with  "distributed";  laḥm "my bread". Oftener this stands as a sign that a consonant is to be omitted in the pronunciation, e. g.  me̊δītā "town",  bath "daughter",  wā "was". The West-