Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/211

, or, lastly, is altogether elided; (b) Verbs which (as in Arabic) originally began with  (called Verba cum Iod originario, see § 70). A few verbs again (some with original, and some with original ) form a special class, which in certain forms assimilates the or Yâdh to the following consonant on the analogy of the Nûn in verbs  (see § 71).

With regard to verbs (i.e.  with original ) it is to be noticed that—

1. In the imperfect, imperative and infinitive construct Qal there is a twofold inflexion, according as the is wholly rejected or only changed into. The complete rejection (or elision) takes place regularly in eight verbs (see h) in the following manner:

A.,  with an unchangeable  in the first syllable and original ĭ in the second, which in the tone-syllable (according to ) becomes ē (thus , , , see x), or, under the influence of a guttural, with ă in the second.

The tone-long ē of the second syllable is of course liable to be shortened or to become, e.g. , , &c.; in the same way ă becomes in such cases as , &c., but is lengthened to  in   and before suffixes.

B.  with aphaeresis of the  and with tone-long ē, from ĭ, as in the.

C.  from original šibh, by addition of the feminine ending  lengthened to a segholate form; as in verbs  (cf. ) this lengthening affords a certain compensation for loss of the initial consonant.

Rem. Since the infinitives, (see below, m) point to a ground-form diʿat, lidat, we must, with Philippi ( xxxii. 42) and Barth (ibid. xli. 606), assign to , &c., the ground-form šibt (which, therefore, reappears in , &c.); the apparent ground-form šabt rests upon the law that the ĭ of the stem-syllable is changed into a whenever the syllable becomes doubly closed by the addition of the vowelless feminine ending.