Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/114

 division of syllables, be weakened to, or even be entirely lost, so that its place is taken by the mere syllable-divider. Examples of the first case are,, pl. , but , , , constr. st. ;, constr. st. ; an example of the second case is,, constr. st. . Whether the vowel is retained or becomes (,, but , ), and which of the two disappears in two consecutive syllables, depends upon the character of the form in question. In general the rule is that only those vowels which stand in an open syllable can become.

Thus the change into takes place in—

(a) The ā and ē of the first syllable, especially in the inflexion of nouns, e.g., plur. ;, great, fem. ; , ; but also in the verb, , plur. , and so always, when the originally short vowel of the prefixes of the Imperfect comes to stand in an open syllable which is not pretonic. On the other hand, an ā lengthened from ă before the tone is retained in the of Qal even in the secondary tone, e.g. ; cf. .

(b) The short, or merely tone-long, vowels a, e, o of the ultima, especially in verbal forms, e.g., fem. qāṭelā;, yiqṭelû; but note also , , &c., according to  and o. The helping vowels are either entirely omitted, e.g.  (ground-form malk), ; or, under the influence of a guttural, are weakened to Ḥaṭeph, e.g. ,. If the tone remains unmoved, the vowel also is retained, notwithstanding the lengthening of the word, e.g. pausal-form for.

Where the tone moves forward two places, the former of the two vowels of a dissyllabic word may be shortened, and the second changed into. Cf. ; in the plur. ; with heavy suffix (cf. ) their words. On the attenuation of the ă to ĭ, see further, s, t.

Rem. 1. An ô arising from aw=au, or by an obscuring of â (see ), sometimes becomes û, when the tone is moved forward, e.g., (see Paradigm Perf. Niph. of ); , fem. , with suffix,. The not uncommon use of in a sharpened syllable, as   (for, cf. also the examples in ), is to be regarded as an orthographic licence, although sometimes in such cases û may really have been intended by the.

Of the vowels of the U-class, û and tone-long ō stand in a tone-bearing