Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/144

 in Hebrew, also ûna (in the construct state û) as the plural termination of masc. nouns in literary Arabic.

2. The characteristic of the second syllable becomes  before an afformative beginning with a vowel, where it would otherwise stand in an open syllable (as, ; but in  , ). Before an afformative beginning with a consonant the remains, whether in the tone-syllable (,, , ; in   &c.) or before it. In the latter case, however, the of the first syllable, being no longer a pretonic vowel, becomes vocal ; as, ; cf. and. On the retention of ā with of the counter-tone in the ''Perf. consecutive'', cf. .

Rem. 1. Verbs middle ē in Hebrew (as in Ethiopic, but not in Arabic or Aramaic) generally change the E-sound in their inflexion into (frequently so even in the 3rd sing. masc. Perf.). This tendency to assimilate to the moro common verbs middle a may also be explained from the laws of vocalization of the tone-bearing closed penultima, which does not readily admit of, and never of , of which the is a lengthening (cf. ). On the other hand,  is retained in an open syllable; regularly so in the weak stems  , before suffixes , and in the pausal forms of the strong stem in an open tone-syllable, e.g. ,  (not , cf. , ; even (contrary to ) in a closed pausal syllable, e.g. ,  (out of pause , ); but  , &c., according to.

2. In some weak stems middle a, the under the second radical sometimes, in a closed toneless syllable, becomes, and, in one example,. Thus from :, ; ;  , and frequently; from ;   (cf. , , ); from ;  ; from ; ,  , and three times  , ,. Qimḥi already suggests the explanation, that the ĭ (ĕ) of these forms of and  is the original vowel, since along with  and  are also found  and  (see the Lexicon). The possibility of this explanation cannot be denied (especially in the case of, see ); the ĭ in these forms might, however, equally well have arisen from an attenuation of ă , such as must in any case be assumed in the other instances. Moreover, it is worthy of notice that in all the above cases the ĭ is favoured by the character of the following consonant (a sibilant or dental), and in most of them also by the tendency towards assimilation of the vowels (cf. and ).

3. In verbs middle ō, the is retained in the tone-syllable, e.g. ;  in  for ; but in a toneless closed syllable the original short vowel appears in the form of a Qameṣ haṭuph;, ;  (see ) then shalt thou be able, ; in a toneless open syllable it becomes vocal , e.g. ,.

4. Rarer forms are: Sing. 3rd fem. in (as in Arabic, Ethiopic, and