Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/132

 (ʾenûn), Arab. húmû (archaic form of hum), and Ethiop. hômû, an ô or ô is appended, which in Hebrew seems to reappear in the poetical suffixes, , (, 3).

In some passages stands for the feminine (,, ; cf. the use of the suffix of the 3rd masc. for the 3rd fem.,  and ). For the quite anomalous  read.

8. The pronouns of the 3rd person may refer to things as well as persons. On their meaning as demonstratives see.

Brockelmann,, p. 100 f.; , i. 306 ff. J. Barth, ‘Beiträge zur Suffixlehre des Nerdsemit.,’ in the, 1901, p. 193 ff.

1. The independent principal forms of the personal pronoun (the separate pronoun), given in the preceding section, express only the nominative. The accusative and genitive are expressed by forms, usually shorter, joined to the end of verbs, nouns, and particles (pronominal suffixes or simply suffixes); e.g. (toneless) and  (from āhû) eum and eius,  (also ),  or (with āhû contracted into ô) ;  (also ) lux eius.

The same method is employed in all the other Semitic languages, as well as in the Egyptian, Persian, Finnish, Tartar, and others; in Greek, Latin, and German we find only slight traces of the kind, e.g. German, er gab’s for er gab es; Greek, πατήρ μου for πατὴρ ἐμοῦ; Latin, eccum, eccos, &c., in Plautus and Terence for ecce eum, ecce eos.

2. The case which these suffixes represent is—

(a) When joined to verbs, the accusative (cf., however, ), e.g. I have killed him.

(b) When affixed to substantives, the genitive (like πατήρ μου, pater eius). They then serve as possessive pronouns, e.g. (ʾābh-î) my father,, which may be either equus eius or equus suus.

(c) When joined to particles, either the genitive or accusative, according as the particles originally expressed the idea of a noun or a verb, e.g., literally interstitium mei, between me (cf. mea causa); but , ecce me.

(d) Where, according to the Indo-Germanic case-system, the dative or ablative of the pronoun is required, the suffixes in Hebrew are joined to prepositions expressing those cases ( sign of the dative,, , § 102), e.g. (ei) and to himself (sibi), ,  (usually ) from me.