Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/27

, Lpz. 1886; P. Haupt, 'Assyrian Phonology, &c.,' in, Chicago, Jan. 1885, vol. i. 3; Delitzsch, , 2nd ed., Berlin, 1906.

If the above division into four branches be reduced to two principal groups, No. 1, as South Semitic, will be contrasted with the three North Semitic branches.

3. The grammatical structure of the Semitic family of languages, as compared with that of other languages, especially the Indo-Germanic, exhibits numerous peculiarities which collectively constitute its distinctive character, although many of them are found singly in other languages. These are&mdash;(a) among the consonants, which in fact form the substance of these languages, occur peculiar gutturals of different grades; the vowels are subject, within the same consonantal framework, to great changes in order to express various modifications of the same stem-meaning; (b) the word-stems are almost invariably triliteral, i.e. composed of three consonants; (c) the verb is restricted to two tense-forms, with a peculiarly regulated use; (d) the noun has only two genders (masc. and fem.); and peculiar expedients are adopted for the purpose of indicating the case-relations; (e) the