Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/168



1. The characteristic of the active is a prefixed  (on its origin see ) in the perfect  (with the ă attenuated to ĭ, as in ), which forms a closed syllable with the first consonant of the stem. The second syllable of the perfect had also originally an ă; cf. the Arabic conj. iv. ’aqtălă, and in Hebrew the return of the in the 2nd and 1st pers. , &c. After the attenuation of this ă to ĭ, it ought by rule to have been lengthened to ē in the tone-syllable, as in Aramaic, beside in Biblical Aramaic. Instead of this, however, it is always replaced in the strong verb by î,, but sometimes written defectively ; cf. . Similarly in the infinitive construct, and in the imperfect and participle and , which are syncopated from  and ;. The corresponding Arabic forms (juqtĭl and muqtĭl) point to an original ĭ in the second syllable of these forms. In Hebrew the regular lengthening of this ĭ to ē appears in the strong verb at least in the and in the  (see n), as also in the  of the 2nd sing. masc. (see m); on, cf. . On the return of the original ă in the second syllable of the Imperat., Jussive, &c, under the influence of a guttural, cf. .

In the  the preformative is pronounced with an obscure vowel, whilst the second syllable has ă (in pause ā), as its characteristic, thus:—Perf.  or, Imperf.  (syncopated from ) or , Part.  or  (from ); but the  has the form.

Thus the characteristics of both conjugations are the preformative in the perfect, imperative, and ; in the  and, Pathaḥ under the preformatives, in the Hophʿal ŏ or ŭ.

2. The meaning of is primarily, and even more frequently than in , causative of , e.g. , Hiph. to bring forth, to lead forth, to draw forth;, Hiph. to sanctify. Under the causative is also included (as in ) the declarative sense, e.g. ; (to pronounce guilty); cf. , in, , to represent as perverse. If Qal has already a transitive meaning, then takes two accusatives (see ). In some verbs, and  occur side by side in the same sense, e.g., Piʿēl and Hiphʿîl, perdidit; as a rule,