Page:Compendious Syriac Grammar.djvu/75

§§ 51. 52. employed as a diacritic mark of the 3rd sing. fem. of the Perf. e. g. for  "she killed". Such an employment of in the 3rd pl. fem. Perf. has gradually come into full use with the West-Syrians; "they (f.) killed", for the old  retained by the East-Syrians (from original qe̊ṭálā, not qe̊ṭálī). The employment of in the 3rd sing. fem. Imperf.,—coming into view in rather late times,—prevails among the West-Syrians, though not quite so universally;, "she kills", &c, in order to distinguish it from the 2nd sing, masc, ,  "thou killest": the Nestorians are completely unacquainted with the  in this usage.

§ 51. An with a vowel is sometimes prefixed to an initial consonant which has not a full vowel. Thus in  "six",  "sixty", alongside of, ;  "a written bond" along with , and always  "drank"; farther  "already" sometimes for. Frequently so in Greek words with στ, σπ, like or ,  and  , &c.

The prefix, pretty frequently met with in ancient MSS. before, is probably to be pronounced ; e. g. for  "Beloved";  for  "upper garment";  for  "firmament";  for  "contented", and many others. So too for  "a meal" ;  for  "ice". In the frequently occurring the u of the rarer form,  is brought to the front. The early adopted Persian word rāzā, more rarely , "a secret" seems to have been pronounced with a vowel-prefix, which however is ignored in the pointing.

§ 52. A. The poets sometimes insert an e before after a word ending in a consonant, e. g.  "is to them" īth elhōn (with three syllables) =.