Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/92

 CHAPTER II

PECULIARITIES AND CHANGES OF LETTERS: THE SYLLABLE AND THE TONE

The changes which take place in the forms of the various parts of speech, depend partly on the peculiar nature of certain classes of letters and the manner in which they affect the formation of syllables, partly on certain laws of the language in regard to syllables and the tone.

The changes which take place among consonants, owing to the formation of words, inflexion, euphony, or to influences connected with the progress of the language, are commutation, assimilation, rejection, addition, transposition, softening.

1. Commutation may take place between consonants which are either homorganic or homogeneous (cf. ), e.g., , , , , Aram. , and,  and ,  and. In process of time, and partly under the influence of Aramaic, the harder and rougher sounds especially were changed into the softer, e.g. into,  into , and the sibilants into the corresponding mutes:  into ,  into ,  into. In many cases these mutes may be regarded as a return to an earlier stage of the pronunciation.

The interchange of consonants, however, belongs rather to the lexicographical treatment of stems than to grammatical inflexion. To the latter belong the interchange (a) of and  in  ; (b) of  and  in verbs primae Yôd,  for , &c.

2. Assimilation usually takes place when one consonant which closes a syllable passes over into another beginning the next syllable, and forms with it a strengthened letter, as illustris for inlustris, affero for adfero, for. In Hebrew this occurs,