Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/220

 4. The cases of unusual vowel lengthening mentioned in b are:  (also in Arabic yăqûmu), but  with normal lengthening, , with retraction of the tone  (yāqŏm),  (in  );  , with normal lengthening of the ŭ in the 2nd ''plur. fem., since, according to , the û'' cannot be retained in a closed penultima;. In the original ĭ is naturally lengthened to î (, ,  , with retraction of the tone , ); on the transference of this î to the  of the strong verb, cf. .

The following forms require special consideration: the  is to be traced to the ground-form with â unobscured, Arab. qâtĭl,, and. On this analogy the form would be qâĭm, which after absorption of the ĭ became, owing to the predominating character of the â. The unchangeableness of the â (plur., , &c.) favours this explanation.

In the, besides the forms with original ŭ (now û) there are also forms with original ă. This ă was lengthened to ā, and then further obscured to ô; hence especially, , &c., from the. In the imperfects (but cf.  ) and  from the intransitive perfects,  (see above, c), most probably also in  ,   from an unused , and perhaps in  , &c., as in the cases noticed in  and especially , the ē of the preformative is lengthened from ĭ (which is attenuated from original ă) and thus yĭ-băš became yĭ-bāš, and finally yē-bôš. Finally the Niph. (nă-qām),   from yiqqām, originally  yinqăm, arises in the same way from the obscuring of ā lengthened from ă.

5. In the and  a  is inserted before the afformatives beginning with a consonant in the 1st and 2nd persons, and  regularly (but see Rem.) in the, sometimes also in the  (as in  , cf.  ), before the termination of. As in verbs ( and note) these separating vowels serve as an artificial opening of the preceding syllable, in order to preserve the long vowel; in the, however, before the , instead of the î an ē is somewhat often found (as a normal lengthening of the original ĭ), especially after wāw