Page:Compendious Syriac Grammar.djvu/71

§§ 47. 48. This ē became to a large extent ī with the West-Syrians: They said nīmar "says",  ḥe̊rīnō "",  rīšō,  kīfō,  kīn, &c. Yet they keep the in  "eats",  "food",  "arrow", &c.; and there are found still in isolated cases  as well as,  as well as  (Inf.) "to swear",  as well as  "are lost" (2. m. pl.), &c. (§§ 174 A, 175 B). , —or the defective form of writing i,—are (even apart from etymology) in these cases almost invariably certain marks of an original ē. The style of writing of the East-Syrians separates ē with tolerable consistency from  ī.

In the end of a word the West-Syrian transition from ē to ī, except in (= Hebr. ) appears only in Greek words in η, e. g.  or even   for  of the East-Syrians. Otherwise remains here:  "reveals",  "kings", &c.

§ 47. The short seems to have been ĕ in the West, from ancient times; in the East it was pronounced sometimes as ĕ, sometimes as ĭ. This difference has no grammatical significance.

A short ĕ may often be lengthened in the concluding syllable through the (original) tone: thus "terrifies";  "I killed" (in which cases the second vowel is written by the East-Syrians with ) should perhaps be pronounced dāḥē&#769;l, qeṭlē&#769;th: It is the same principle with the monosyllabic   "suddenly" and  "six", for which  and  are found in very old MSS. Yet this is not certain; and still less certain is it whether such a lengthening was generally practised. But beyond all doubt "my son" (§ 146) has a long ē.

§ 48. The (ō) with the West-Syrians at an early date coincided with  (, ū). It has been retained only in the interjections and  "oi" (for which others say ). Thus we have otherwise qōṭūlō for  qāṭōlā "murder";  ṣe̊lūthō for  ṣe̊lōthā "prayer", &c. Moreover such an East-Syrian appears not seldom to be only the result of toning down an original ū, especially in the neighbourhood