Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/93

 (a) most frequently with, e.g. (for min-šām) from there,  (for min-zè) from this,  (for yintēn) he gives. is not assimilated after the prefix, e.g. , nor as a rule before gutturals (except sometimes before ), nor when it is the third consonant of the stem, e.g. (cf. however  for nāthántā) except when another Nun follows, cf. ; nor in some isolated cases, as, , , all in the principal pause; on and  , see , and.

(b) Less frequently and only in special cases with, , , e.g. (for yilqaḥ) he takes;  for mithdabbēr;  for yithṭammā;  for tithkônēn;  for ;  for ʾaḥadt; but in  for  read probably.

(c) In isolated cases with, , , e.g. if from ;  and  mostly before sibilants in the verbal forms enumerated in.

In all these cases, instead of the assimilated letter, a appears in the following consonant. , however, is omitted when the strengthened consonant would stand at the end of a word, since the strengthening would then be less audible, e.g. (from ʾanp),  (from tint).

The cases are less frequent where a weak letter is lost in pronunciation, and in place of it the preceding stronger sound is sharpened, i.e. takes, e.g. from. for  is an Aramaism.

3. Complete rejection takes place only in the case of weaker consonants, especially the sonants and, the gutturals  and , and the two half vowels  and. Such rejection takes place,

(a) at the beginning of a word (aphaeresis), when these weak consonants are not supported by a full vowel, but have only Šewâ, e.g., also ;  for ;  for ;  for ,  for.

Aphaeresis of a weak consonant with a full vowel is supposed to occur in  for ; in   for ; in  for  ; on   for, and on   for , see , end. In reality, however, all these forms are to be regarded merely as old textual errors.

(b) In the middle of a word (syncope), when Šewâ precedes the weak consonant ; thus in the case of (see further –f, and