Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/69

 agrees with the vocalic character of  and  (, note 2). Thus such words as, , , , , are not to be pronounced according to the usual Jewish custom as , , , , ,  (or even as , &c.; cf. modern Greek ,  for αὐ, εὐ ), but with the Italian Jews more like , , &c. The sound of is the same as, i.e. almost like , so that  is often written defectively for.

Numerous as are the vowel signs in Hebrew writing, they are yet not fully adequate to express all the various modifications of the vowel sounds, especially with respect to length and shortness. To understand this better a short explanation of the character and value of the several vowels is required, especially in regard to their length and shortness as well as to their changeableness.

I. ''First Class. A-sound.''

1., when it represents a long , is, by nature and origin, of two kinds:—

(1) The essentially long (in Arabic regularly written ), which is not readily shortened and never wholly dropped, e.g.   (writing); very seldom with a following , as  , (see the examples in ).

The writing of  for  would only be justifiable, if the  of this form were to be explained as a contraction of  cf. however ;  for   is certainly incorrect.—The rarity of the  in Hebrew arises from the fact that it has for the most part become an obtuse ; see below,.

(2), lengthened only by position (i.e. tone-long or at all events lengthened under the influence of the tone, according to the laws for the formation of syllables, –), either in the tone-syllable itself (or in the secondary tone-syllable indicated by , see below), or just before or after it. This sound is invariably lengthened from an original, and is found in open syllables, i.e. syllables ending in a vowel , e.g. , , , (Arab. , , , ), as well as in closed syllables, i.e. those ending in