Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/313

 On the connective forms, , cf. the analogous forms in.

The other Semitic languages also exhibit the same peculiarity in the external differentiation of the numerals from 3 to 10 as regards gender. The fem. form of the numeral abstracts is only rarely found in connexion with feminine nouns, e.g., , ,  ; probably also , where we should read with Dillmann. In apposition,, , cf. . From what was said above, under a, it follows that these cases are not a return to original usage, but only an intrusion of the form used before masculines into the sphere of the feminine. Conversely in  (but in the Samaritan ).—For, there occurs in  the strange form , according to Ewald [8, ] an old feminine substantive (German ein Siebend, a set of seven), but more probably a scribal error.

2. The numerals from 11 to 19 are formed by placing the units, without the copula, before the number ten (in the form masc.,  fem.), but without the two words being joined into one. As was said above, under a, and as is proved by the use of, in the numeral 11, the feminine numerals from 13 to 19 are to be regarded as construct forms in a genitive connexion. The connective forms of the masculine abstracts, like, &c., are not admitted in combination with , since they are merely in apposition, and not in a genitive relation (see the rare exceptions at the end of e). On the other hand and  in the numeral 12 are undoubtedly true constructs, like  and the fem. numerals 13–19. But instead of (,  and four other places) and  ( and three times in Ezek.), we generally find  and. Two explanations have been given of these forms: (1) that the really intends, , in the ''absol. st., which was first introduced in the case of, on the analogy of , &c., and then extended to ; the Masora, however, required , (but see below), and therefore pointed ,  as a Qerê perpetuum (see § 17).—(2) that the absolute'' forms ,  (introduced on the analogy of , &c.) were contracted to ,  to facilitate the pronunciation of the duals when closely