Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/113

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According to § 26, the following details of vowel-change must be observed:

 [d 1. The original, or a kindred short vowel reappears—

(a) When a closed syllable loses the tone (§ 26 o). Thus, יָד hand, but יַד־יְהֹוָה the hand of Yahwe; בֵּן son, but בֶּן־הַמֶּ֫לֶךְ the son of the king; כֹּל the whole, but כָּל־הָעָם the whole of the people; so also when a tone-bearing closed syllable loses the tone on taking a suffix, e.g. אֹיֵב enemy, but אֹֽיִבְךָ thy enemy; finally, when the tone recedes, יָקֹם, but וַיָּ֫קָם (wayyāqŏm); יֵלֵךְ, but וַיֵּ֫לֶךְ.

(b) To the same category belong cases like סֵ֫פֶר book, but סִפְרִי my book; קֹ֫דֶשׁ holiness, but קָדְשִׁי my holiness. In spite of the helping vowel, סֵפֶר and קֹדֶשׁ are really closed syllables with a tone-long vowel; when the syllable loses the tone, the original ĭ or ŏ (properly ŭ) reappears.

The same is true of syllables with a virtually sharpened final consonant: the lengthening of original ĭ to ē and ŭ to ō takes place only in a tone-bearing syllable; in a toneless syllable the ĭ or ŏ (or ŭ) remains, e.g. אֵם mother, but אִמִּי my mother; חֹק law, plur. חֻקִּים; but עֹז strength, עָזִּי (and עֻזִּי) my strength.

 [e 2. The lengthening of the short vowel to the corresponding long, takes place—

(a) When a closed syllable becomes open by its final consonant being transferred to a suffix beginning with a vowel, or in general to the following syllable, e.g. קָטַל, קְטָ|לוֹ he has killed him; סוּסָ|תִי primarily from סוּסַת. Similarly ă mostly becomes ā even before a suffix beginning with Šewâ mobile; e.g. קְטָֽלְךָ from קָטַל, סוּסָֽתְךָ from סוּסַת.

 [f (b) When a syllable has become open by complete loss of the strengthening of its final consonant (a guttural or Rêš), e.g. בֵּ|רַךְ for birrakh, see § 22 c. Cf. also § 20 n.

 [g (c) When a weak consonant (א, ו, י) following the short vowel quiesces in this vowel, according to § 23 a, c, d, § 24 f, e.g. מָצָא for מָצַא, where the א, losing its consonantal value, loses also the power of closing the syllable, and the open syllable requires a long vowel.

 [h (d) Very frequently through the influence of the pause, i.e. the principal tone in the last word of a sentence or clause (§ 29 k). Sometimes also through the influence of the article (§ 35 o).

 [i 3. When a word increases at the end and the tone is consequently moved forward, or when, in the construct state (see § 89), or otherwise in close connexion with the following word, its tone is weakened, in such cases a full vowel (short or tone-long) may, by a change in the