Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/108

 verbs, e.g. originally ==, since ă after the rejection of the  stands in an open syllable, and consequently must be lengthened to ā. The is simply an orthographic sign of the long vowel. So also for šālaw. On the origin of, see ; on as perf. and part. of, see and g; on , &c., from , see .—On the weakening of  and  to , see.

What vowels in Hebrew are unchangeable, i.e. are not liable to attenuation (to Šewâ), modification, lengthening, or shortening, can be known with certainty only from the nature of the grammatical forms, and in some cases by comparison with Arabic (cf. ). This hems good especially of the essentially long vowels, i.e. those long by nature or contraction, as distinguished from those which are only lengthened rhythmically, i.e. on account of the special laws which in Hebrew regulate the tone and the formation of syllables. The latter, when a change takes place in the position of the tone or in the division of syllables, readily become short again, or are reduced to a mere.

1. The essentially long and consequently, as a rule (but cf., , o), unchangeable vowels of the second and third class, î, ê, û, ô, can often be recognized by means of the vowel letters which accompany them ; e.g. , , ,. The defective writing is indeed common enough, e.g.  and  for ;  for ;  for, but this is merely an orthographic licence and has no influence on the quantity of the vowel; the û in  is just as necessarily long, as in.

As an exception, a merely tone-long vowel of both these classes is sometimes written fully, e.g. for.

2. The essentially or naturally long â (Qameṣ impure), unless it has become ô (cf. ), has as a rule in Hebrew no representative among the consonants, while in Arabic it is regularly indicated by ; on the few instances of this kind in Hebrew, cf. , . The naturally long â and the merely tone-long ā therefore can only be distinguished by an accurate knowledge of the forms.