Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/181

 retraction of the tone before a following tone-syllable, but read certainly .—The forms, ,  occur 23 times, all in poetry (except ) [viz. with the perfect, , ; with the imperfect ( for ), , , , , , , ; with the imperative , , ]. On the age of these forms, see 3; on  and  as suffixes of the 3rd fem. plur. of the imperfect, .—In  (cf.   according to Baer),  has lost the tone before  and so is shortened to .—In   is probably only an error for.

2. From a comparison of these verbal suffixes with the noun-suffixes (§ 91) we find that (a) there is a greater variety of forms amongst the verbal than amongst the noun-suffixes, the forms and relations of the verb itself being more various;—(b) the verbal suffix, where it differs from that of the noun, is longer; cf. e.g., , (me) with  (my). The reason is that the pronominal object is less closely connected with the verb than the possessive pronoun (the genitive) is with the noun; consequently the former can also be expressed by a separate word ( in, &c.).

4. A verbal form with a suffix gains additional strength, and sometimes intentional emphasis, when, instead of the mere connecting vowel, a special connecting-syllable (ăn) is inserted between the suffix and the verbal stem. Since, however, this syllable always has the tone, the ă is invariably (except in the 1st pers. sing.) modified to tone-bearing. This is called the Nûn energicum (less suitably demonstrativum or epentheticum), and occurs principally (see, however, bis) in pausal forms of the imperfect, e.g.  (, cf. ),  ;   is unusual; rarely in the perfect,. On examples like, cf. , . In far the greatest number of cases, however, this Nûn is assimilated to the following consonant, or the latter is lost in pronunciation (so ), and the Nûn consequently sharpened. Hence we get the following series of suffix-forms:—