Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/130

 Phoenician, Moabite, and Assyrian, but in no other of the kindred dialects; from the latter the suffixes are derived (§ 33). The ô most probably results from an obscuring of an original â (cf. Aram., Arab. ’ána). The pausal form occurs not only with small disjunctive accents, but even with conjunctives; so always in  also  with Munaḥ,  with Merkha (which, however, has been altered from Deḥî), and twice in. In all these cases there is manifestly a disagreement between the vocalization already established and the special laws regulating the system of accentuation.

2. The formation of the plural, in this and the other persons, exhibits a certain analogy with that of the noun, while at the same time (like the pronouns of other languages) it is characterized by many differences and peculiarities. The short form from which the suffix is derived occurs only in. The form (cf. ) only in, , ;  in , ; in Arabic năḥnu is the regular form. In the Mišna has altogether supplanted the longer forms.

3. The pronoun of the 1st person only is, as a rule in languages, of the common gender, because the person who is present and speaking needs no further indication of gender, as does the 2nd person, who is addressed (in Greek, Latin, English, &c., this distinction is also lacking), and still more the 3rd person who is absent.

II. Second Person.

4. The forms of the 2nd person, , , , &c., are contracted from ’antā, &c. The kindred languages have retained the n before the, e.g. Arab. ’ántā, fem. ’ánti, thou; pl. ’ántum, fem. ’antúnna, ye. In Syriac, fem. are written, but both are pronounced ’at. In Western Aramaic is usual for both genders.

(without ) occurs five times, e.g., always as , with as. In three places appears as a masculine,, ,.

The feminine form was originally as in Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic. This form is found seven times as  and appears also in the corresponding personal ending of verbs (see ), especially, and necessarily, before suffixes, as,  [c]; cf. also î as the ending of the 2nd fem. sing. of the imperative and imperfect. The final î was, however, gradually dropped in pronunciation, just as in Syriac (see above, f) it was eventually only written, not pronounced. The therefore finally disappeared (cf. ), and hence the Masoretes, even in these seven passages, have pointed the word in the text as  to indicate the   (see § 17). The same final appears in the rare (Aramaic) forms of the suffix,  (§§ 58, 91).

5. The plurals (with the second vowel assimilated to the fem. form) and, with the tone on the ultima, only partially correspond to the assumed ground-forms ʾantumū, fem. ʾantinnā, Arab. ʾntŭm (Aram., ) and ʾăntú̆nna (Aram. , ). The form is found only in  (so Qimḥi expressly, others );  (for which some MSS. have