Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/322

 i.e. the command of*) according to;  (in the concern of) on account of;  (for the purpose of) on account of.

2. Substantives used adverbially very frequently become prepositions in this way, e.g., , , , , (with cessation) without,  (in the duration of) during; ,  (according to the requirement of) for, according to.

1. Of the words mentioned in § 101,, frequently occurs as a prefix , with its Nûn assimilated to the following consonant (by means of ), e.g..

Rem. The separate (always with a following ) is usual (but not necessary, cf.  with verse 15,, &c.) only before the article, e.g. , and sometimes occurs before the softer consonants, e.g.  ,  , ; cf. ,, , , , , ( before ; also before  in ), and elsewhere in the later books (as in Aramaic) ; there is besides a poetic by-form  (cf. ) and. Its form is most commonly, which may, however, be omitted in letters which have (cf. ). With a following  the  is, as a rule, contracted to , e.g. = or  (but cf.  ;  ); before gutturals it becomes  (according to ), e.g. , ; before  the  occurs with the guttural virtually sharpened in , and in  ; before  in  (cf.  and . The closed syllable here is inconsistent with the required virtual sharpening of the ; probably  is merely due to the analogy of ); similarly  before ; but in ,   is to be read, according to.

2. There are also three other particles, the most commonly used prepositions and the particle of comparison, which have been reduced by abbreviation to a single prefixed consonant with  (but see below, and ), viz.:

[poet. ] in, at, with.

[poet. ] towards, (belonging) to, for, Lat. ad.

[poet. ] like, as, according to (no doubt the remnant of a substantive with the meaning of matter, kind, instar).

With regard to the pointing it is to be observed that—

(a) The, with which the above prefixes are usually pronounced, has resulted from the weakening of a short vowel (an original ă, according to f) ; the short vowel is regularly retained before : before