Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/60

 only in later Arabic that they became in pronunciation ê and ô, at least after weaker or softer consonants; cf. Arab. bain, bên, Arab. yaum, yôm. The same contraction appears also in other languages, e.g. in Greek and Latin (, Ionic ; plaustrum = polostrum), in the French pronunciation of ai and au, and likewise in the German popular dialects (Oge for Auge, &c.). Similarly, the obscuring of the vowels plays a part in various languages (cf. e.g. the a in modern Persian, Swedish, English, &c.).

2. The partial expression of the vowels by certain consonants, which sufficed during the lifetime of the language, and for a still longer period afterwards (cf. ), must in the main have passed through the following stages :—

(a) The need of a written indication of the vowel first made itself felt in cases where, after the rejection of a consonant, or of an entire syllable, a long vowel formed the final sound of the word. The first step in such a case was to retain the original final consonant, at least as a vowel letter, i.e. merely as an indication of a final vowel. In point of fact we find even in the Old Testament, as already in the Mêšaʿ inscription, a employed in this way (see below) as an indication of a final o. From this it was only a step to the employment of the same consonant to indicate also other vowels when final (thus, e.g. in the inflection of the verbs, the vowels ā, ē, è). After the employment of as a vowel letter for ô and û, and of  for ê and î, had been established (see below, e) these consonants were also employed—although not consistently—for the same vowels at the end of a word.

According to and d, the suffix of the 3rd sing. masc. in the noun (as in the verb) was originally pronounced. But in the places where this with a preceding a is contracted into ô (after the rejection of the ), we find the  still frequently retained as a vowel letter, e.g.,  , cf. ; so throughout the Mêšaʿ inscription, (also ), , , , ; on the other hand already in the Siloam inscription. Mêšaʿ, l. 8 = is unusual, as also  l. 20 if it is for. The verbal forms with suffixed are to be read  (l. 6),  (l. 12f.) and  (l. 19).

As an example of the original consonant being retained, we might also include the of the constr. state plur. masc. if its ê (according to ) is