Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/113

 According to, the following details of vowel-change must be observed:

1. The original, or a kindred short vowel reappears—

(a) When a closed syllable loses the tone. Thus,, but ; , but ; , but ; so also when a tone-bearing closed syllable loses the tone on taking a suffix, e.g. , but ; finally, when the tone recedes, , but ; , but.

(b) To the same category belong cases like, but ; , but. In spite of the helping vowel, and  are really closed syllables with a tone-long vowel; when the syllable loses the tone, the original ĭ or ŏ (properly ŭ) reappears.

The same is true of syllables with a virtually sharpened final consonant: the lengthening of original ĭ to ē and ŭ to ō takes place only in a tone-bearing syllable; in a toneless syllable the ĭ or ŏ (or ŭ) remains, e.g., but ; , plur. ; but, (and ).

2. The lengthening of the short vowel to the corresponding long, takes place—

(a) When a closed syllable becomes open by its final consonant being transferred to a suffix beginning with a vowel, or in general to the following syllable, e.g., ; primarily from. Similarly ă mostly becomes ā even before a suffix beginning with ; e.g. from,  from.

(b) When a syllable has become open by complete loss of the strengthening of its final consonant (a guttural or Rêš), e.g. for, see. Cf. also.

(c) When a weak consonant following the short vowel quiesces in this vowel, according to, , , , e.g.  for , where the , losing its consonantal value, loses also the power of closing the syllable, and the open syllable requires a long vowel.

(d) Very frequently through the influence of the, i.e. the principal tone in the last word of a sentence or clause. Sometimes also through the influence of the article.

3. When a word increases at the end and the tone is consequently moved forward, or when, in the (see ), or otherwise in close connexion with the following word, its tone is weakened, in such cases a full vowel (short or tone-long) may, by a change in the