Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/252

 was dropped, i.e. before case-endings in Assyrian and early Arabic, and before pronominal suffixes in Hebrew. From the forms thus produced, the bases, , have been assumed, although they never appear in Hebrew except in the singular and then in connexion with suffixes.

In support of this view of a large number of original dissyllabic bases, we must not, however, appeal to the Seghôl or Pathaḥ under the 2nd consonant of the existing developed forms,, , &c. These are in no sense survivals or modifications of an original full vowel in the 2nd syllable, but are mere helping-vowels to make the monosyllabic forms pronounceable, and consequently disappear when no longer needed. Under certain circumstances even (e.g. in ) they are not used at all. Actual proofs of such original toneless full vowels in the 2nd syllable of existing Segholates are—

1. Forms like Arab. , for which rarely, corresponding to the Hebrew ground-form; cf. De Lagarde,, p. 72 ff.

2. In Hebrew, , , , the connective forms of , , &c., which latter can only come from ground-forms , , ,.

3. The forms treated under, which are in many ways related to the Segholates proper, in so far as they are to be referred to original dissyllabic bases.

4. The plurals of Hebrew Segholates, since, with very rare exceptions, they take under the 2nd radical before the termination, fem. , of the , as , , , &c. This (see note 1 on ) can only be due to a lengthening of an original short vowel in the 2nd syllable, and hence it would seem as though the vowel were always ă. This is impossible from what has been said, especially under 1 and 2. Hence the explanation of the consistent occurrence of in the plurals of all Segholates can only be that the regularly formed plurals (i.e. from singulars with original ă in the 2nd syllable) became the models for all the others, and ultimately even for some really monosyllabic forms.

(a) From the strong stem the above three ground-forms are further developed to, , (cf.  and in  the explanations of Paradigm I, a–c); without a helping vowel. If the second