Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/273

. It can hardly be doubted (but cf. h, Rem.) that the (locative) termination is a survival of the old accusative termination a, and that  in certain compound proper names is the old sign of the nominative. The explanation of the î as an old genitive sign, which, as being no longer understood in Hebrew, was used for quite different purposes, and the view that is a form of the nominative termination, are open to grave doubts.

In Assyrian the rule is that u marks the nominative, i the genitive, and a the accusative, ‘in spite of the many and various exceptions to this rule which occur’ (Delitzsch, Assyrische Gramm., § 66). Similarly, the Arabic case-endings in the fully declined nouns (Triptotes) are: -u for the nominative, -i for the genitive, and -a for the accusative; in the Diptotes the ending -a represents the genitive also. In modern Arabic these endings have almost entirely disappeared, and if they are now and then used, as among the Beduin, it is done without regularity, and one is interchanged with another (Wallin, in v, p. 9, xii, p. 874; Wetzstein, ibid., xxii, p. 113 f., and especially Spitta, Gramm. des Arab. Vulgärdialekts von Ägypten, Lpz. 1880, p. 147 ff.). Even as early as the Sinaitic inscriptions, their regular use is not maintained (Beer,Studia Asiatica, iii. 1840, p. xviii; Tuch, iii. 139 f.). Ethiopic has preserved only the -a (in proper names -hâ), which is, however, still used for the whole range of the accusative, and also (the distinction of case being lost) as a termination of the ''constr. st''. to connect it with a following genitive.

2. As remarked above, under a, the accusative form is preserved in Hebrew most certainly and clearly in the (usually toneless) ending, originally ă, as in the old Arabic accusative. This is appended to the substantive:

(a) Most commonly to express direction towards an object, or motion to a placer, e.g., , , , , (from ) to the mountain, , , ,   , &c.,   ; with the article , , , ;  into the tent, , &c.; similarly with adverbs, as , ; even with the ''constr. st''. before a genitive into Joseph’s house, ;, ; , ; , ; , ; and even with the plural , ;.