Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/106

 Rem. In connexion with ō and ē, a which only marks the vowel ending is occasionally changed into  or  (=, = ), and with any vowel into  in the later or Aramaic orthography, but especially with ā, e.g.,  for ;   for , &c. Thus it is evident that final as a vowel letter has only an orthographical importance.

Philippi, (mentioned above,, note 1), a thorough investigation of their phonetic value as consonantal, i.e. non-syllabic, vowel-sounds, not palatal or labial fricatives; cf. also E. Sievers,, i. 15.

and are, as consonants, so weak, and approach so nearly to the corresponding vowels u and i, that under certain conditions they very readily merge into them. This fact is especially important in the formation of those weak stems, in which a or  occurs as one of the three radical consonants ( ff., § 85, § 93).

1. The cases in which and  lose their consonantal power, i.e. merge into a vowel, belong almost exclusively to the middle and end of words; at the beginning they remain as consonants.

The instances may be classified under two heads:

(a) When either or  with  stands at the end of a syllable immediately after a homogeneous vowel (u or i). It then merges in the homogeneous vowel, or more accurately it assumes its vowel-character ( as u, as i), and is then contracted with the preceding vowel into one vowel, necessarily long, but is mostly retained orthographically as a (quiescent) vowel letter. Thus for huwšab;  for yiyqaṣ; so also at the end of the word, e.g., properly ʿibrîy, fem. , pl. (and );  for  (cf.   ). On the other hand, if the preceding vowel he heterogeneous,  and  are retained as full consonants (on the pronunciation see ), e.g., , ,. But with a preceding ǎ the and  are mostly contracted into ô and ê (see below, f), and at the end of a word they are sometimes rejected (see below, g).

Complete syncope of before î occurs in  for ;  for ;   for ; [  for, cf. , e, 93 y].