Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/89

 . (ζ) With the Qameṣ of the plural forms of (thus , cf.  under ), and with   to guard against the pronunciation , .&mdash;Every kind of light Mèthĕg may in certain circumstances be changed into a conjunctive accent, e.g.  , &c.

2. The grave ( in the more limited sense) is especially employed in the following cases in order more distinctly to emphasize a short vowel or an initial Šewâ: (a) with the Pathaḥ of the article or of the prefixes, , , when followed by ( under a consonant without (, e.g. ,  &c., but not before  (before which  also remains without , with the exception of  and  when they are followed by , or accented with ), nor before the tone-syllable of a word, and neither before nor after the common ; likewise not in words which are connected by a conjunctive accent with the following word; (b) with the interrogative  with  (except when it precedes ,  or the tone-syllable of the word), e.g. . When a Šewâ follows the  and after the Šewâ there is an untoned syllable, Baer places the  to the right of the  , e.g.   (but ed. Mant. and Ginsb. ); (c) with the Pathaḥ or Segôl of the article before a guttural (which cannot take Dageš), e.g. , .&mdash;The   is especially important in the accentuation of the , for purposes of musical recitation; it stands chiefly in words whose principal tone is marked by a disjunctive without a preceding conjunctive, e.g..

3. The, to ensure the distinct pronunciation of those consonants which in consequence of the loss of the tone, or because they close a syllable, might easily be neglected, e.g. ;  (here to avoid a hiatus) , or in such cases as  , &c.;.

(especially in the cases mentioned in 1, b, a) is a guide to correct pronunciation, since it distinguishes ā from ŏ (except in the case noted in, b) and î from ĭ; e.g.  (she has eaten), but   (food), since the  stands here in a toneless closed syllable, and must therefore be a short vowel; thus also   (they fear), but   (they see),  (they sleep), but  (they repeat). The Jewish grammarians, however, do not consider the syllables lengthened by Mèthĕg as open. They regard the Šewâ as in cases like  and belonging to the preceding vowel; cf. Baer,, p. 9, and in Merx's , i. p. 60, Rem. I, and especially, p. 13.

On Qerê and Kethîbh see Ginsburg,, p. 183 ff.

1. The margin of Biblical MSS. and editions exhibits variants of an early date, called , since, according to