Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/109

 3. Short vowels in closed syllables, which are not final, are as a rule unchangeable, e.g. , , ; similarly, short vowels in sharpened syllables, i.e. before , e.g..

4. Finally, those long vowels are unchangeable which, owing to the omission of the strengthening in a guttural or, have arisen by lengthening from the corresponding short vowels, and now stand in an open syllable, e.g. for ;  for.

Apart from the unchangeable vowels, the use of short or long vowels, i.e. their lengthening, shortening, or change into vocal , depends on the. The initial and final syllables especially require consideration.

1. The syllable. A syllable regularly begins with a consonant, or, in the case of initial and  (cf. note on ), a consonantal vowel. The copula is a standing exception to this rule. According to the Tiberian pronunciation is resolved into the corresponding vowel  before, and the labials, e.g. , ; the Babylonian punctuation in the latter cases writes , i.e.  before a full vowel.

2. The syllable. A syllable may end—

(a) With a vowel, and is then called an or  syllable, e.g. in  where the first and last are open. See below,.

(b) With one consonant, and is then called a or  syllable, as the second in,. See below,,. Such are also the syllables ending in a strengthened consonant, as the first in. See below,.

(c) With two consonants, a doubly closed syllable, as,. Cf. below,, and –.

3. or  syllables have a long vowel, whether they have the tone as in, , or are toneless as in ,. A long vowel (Qameṣ, less frequently Ṣere) is