Page:Compendious Syriac Grammar.djvu/62

Rh Although this falling away of the is very ancient, yet the East-Syrians frequently retain it as a consonant in such cases: thus e. g. they prefer to punctuate, , without pushing forward the vowel to the preceding consonant, as if it should still be read nešʾal, be̊ʾāthā; but all this without consistency.

B. Between two vowels receives with many Syrians (always?) the pronunciation y, e. g.  ōyar "air" (West-Syr.). This pronunciation, which occasionally finds expression even in writing, e. g. for  "defiled" (§ 172 A B), has however not been general.

In the end of a syllable always loses its consonantal value:  "I demanded", is in sound the same as ;  "eats" = ;  "are growing old" =, &c. Etymology alone can decide here, as in many other cases, whether is a mere vowel-letter or an original guttural (Arabic Hemza). Such an is now no longer written in cases like  from saggīʾ (cf., ), &c.) "much". On the changes of vowels at the disappearance of such an  v. § 53.

§ 34. An, which in the beginning of the syllable ought to receive a vocal sheva,—according to the analogy of other consonants,—retains a full vowel instead; but in the middle of a word it gives up this vowel to the foregoing consonant (by § 33 A) and loses its own consonantal value. The vowel is or, and the latter even in many cases where it was originally a. Thus "spoke", compared with  "killed" 3. s. (originally amar, qaṭal); "spoken", compared with  "killed" (from qaṭīl);  "eat", like  "kill",— "is being eaten" (like  "is being killed");  "angel" = ;  "afflicted" machevē (East-Syrian )  &c. The Nestorians occasionally write in these cases (§ 17) e. g., which is even improperly used for regular vowels, as in  =  (§ 45) "her foundations". An o (perhaps lengthened?) has been thus maintained in (Plural of  "manger") from ŏrawāthā. Such an with a sheva disappears without leaving a trace in,  "their multitude" from  for soγʾā.

§ 35. Seeing that a radical frequently thus falls away in pronunciation, it is often left out also in writing, and that even in the oldest