Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/107

 Thus an initial after the prefixes, , , , which would then be pronounced with ĭ (see ), and also almost always after  (see ), coalesces with the ĭ to î, e.g.  (for ), , , ,.

(b) When and  without a vowel would stand at the end of the word after, they are either wholly rejected and only orthographically replaced by  (e.g.  from bikhy, as well as the regularly formed ; cf. ) or become again vowel letters. In the latter case becomes a homogeneous, and also attracts to itself the tone, whilst the preceding vowel becomes  (e.g.  from piry, properly );  is changed sometimes into a toneless u (e.g.  from tuhw).

Rem. In Syriac, where the weak letters more readily become vowel sounds, a simple i may stand even at the beginning of words instead of or. The LXX also, in accordance with this, write Ἰουδά for, Ἰσαάκ for. Hence may be explained the Syriac usage in Hebrew of drawing back the vowel i to the preceding consonant, which properly had a simple, e.g. (according to the reading of Ben-Naphtali )  for  (so Baer),   for , cf. also the examples in, note 2; even  (in some editions) for. According to Qimḥi (see ) was pronounced as iqṭōl, and therefore the 1st peps. was pointed to avoid confusion. In fact the Babylonian punctuation always has ĭ for ä in the 1st pers.

2. With regard to the choice of the long vowel, in which and  quiesce after such vocalization and contraction, the following rules may be laid down:

(a) With a short homogeneous vowel and  are contracted into the corresponding long vowel (û or î), see above, b.

(b) With short ă they form the diphthongs ô and ê according to, e.g. from ;  from , &c.

Rem. The rejection of the half vowels and  (see above, b) occurs especially at the end of words after a heterogeneous vowel (ă), if according to the nature of the form the contraction appears impossible. So especially in