Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/285

 In the segholate forms in the singular and mostly in the dual the suffix is appended to the ground-form (,, &c.); on the other hand, before the endings , (sometimes also before ) a Qames regularly occurs, before which the vowel of the first syllable then becomes vocal. This (on which cf. ) remains even before the light suffixes, when attached to the plur. masc. (,, &c.). On the other hand, the ''constr. st.'' plur. and dual, regularly, according to d, has the form, with grave suffix , &c., from.

(c) Before the which precedes the suffix  when following a consonant, the a-sound, as a rule, is the only tone-lengthened vowel which remains in the final syllable (being now in an open syllable before the tone), e.g., , &c. (on the forms with ē in the second syllable, see ); but before the grave suffixes and  in the same position it reverts to its original shortness, as  (debhărkhèm), &c. In the same way the tone-lengthened ā or ē of the second syllable in the ''constr. st.'' sing. also becomes short again, since the ''constr. st.'' resigns the principal tone to the fenowing word, e.g. ; (from ).

Rem. The Masora (cf. Diqduqe ha-ṭeamim, p. 37) reckons thirteen words which retain in the ''constr. st., some of which had originally â'' and therefore need not be considered. On the other hand, or , , &c. (in spite of the constr. st. plur. );, ;   (so Baer, but ed. Mant., Ginsburg, &c. );   and   are very peculiar.

3. The vowel changes in the inflexion of feminine nouns (§ 95) are not so considerable, since generally in the formation of the feminine either the original vowels have been retained, or they have already become.

Besides the vowel changes discussed above in a–g, which take place according to the general formative laws (§§ 25–28), certain further phenomena must also be considered in the inflexion of nouns, an accurate knowledge of which requires in each case an investigation of the original form of the words in question (see §§ 84–86). Such are, e.g., the rejection of the of  stems before all formative additions (cf. ), the sharpening of the final consonant of  stems in such cases as, , &c.

A striking difference between the vowel changes in the verb and noun is that in a verb when terminations are added it is mostly the second of two changeable vowels which becomes, but in a noun, the first , cf. § 27. 3.