Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/117

 syllable, after the restoration of the short vowel, sometimes combines with the second to form a firmly closed syllable, e.g.   for lĭnephōl, and so almost always in the infin. constr. after ; in isolated cases also with, as.

2. If a guttural with follows, the original ă of the prefixes is retained before Ḥaṭeph Pathaḥ, but before Ḥaṭeph Seghol or Ḥaṭeph Qameṣ it is modified to the short vowel contained in the. Thus arise the vowel groups, , , e.g. , , , ,. On the Metheg with every such short vowel, see, δ. Sometimes here also a fully closed syllable is formed. In such a case, the prefix takes the short vowel, which would have belonged to the suppressed, e.g. for ;   for  (see c);  but also ; and even  , cf. . So always in the Infin. and Imperat. Qal of the verbs and, e.g. , ; even with , as , on which cf. ; but, , have ĕ instead of ĭ under the prefix. For the Metheg, cf. , ε.

3. When a in the middle of a word, owing to flexional changes, would stand before a vocal, it is changed into the short vowel, with which it is compounded. This applies especially to cases in which the stands under a guttural instead of quiescent, as an echo of the preceding short vowel, e.g.  (for ), but plur. for yaamedhû, and for nĕhäphekhû (they have turned themselves),, cf. . The syllables are to be divided yăʿă-medhû, and the second ă is to be regarded exactly as the helping in, &c.

4. At the end of words, syllables occur which close with two consonants, but only when the latter of the two is an emphatic consonant or a tenuis (viz. , , ,  ), e.g. , ,  (fem.) hast said, , ,.

This harsh ending is elsewhere avoided by the Masora, which inserts between the two final consonants a helping vowel, usually