m^M::.

The original of tliis book is in

tine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in

the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924078408949

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 1924 078 408 949

f3:

mq^

OUTLIMS OF HEBKEW GEAMMAE.

OUTLIISrES

OF

HEBBEW aEAMMAEBT

GU8TAVUS BICKELL, D.D.,PKOFBSSOE OF TKEpIjOaX AT IHNBBBtTCK.

REVISED BT THE AUTHOR, AJfD ABHOTATID BT THE TRANSLATOR

SAMUEL IVES CURTISS, Je.,BOOTOB OF PHIiOBOPHT, LEIPZIG.

WITH A LITHOBRAPmO TABLE OF SEMITIC CHARACTERS

BY DE. J. ETJTING.

LEIPZIG:

F. A. BKOGKHAUS.

1877.

All rights reserved.

TO

PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., LL.D.,

PROFESSOE IN UNION THBOLOeiCAl SEMINARY, NEW YORK,

THIS TRANSLATION IS RESPECTFULLY ,

DEDICATED.

TKANSLATOK'S PEEFACE.

T^HIS little work does not appear as a rival of theexcellent grammars of Green and DaTidson. It is

rather designed for students in comparative philology,

and for those who have already made some progressin Hebrew.

Although so modest in size that it may be mis-taken for an elementary treatise, it should perhaps

rather be considered as the most scientific discussion of

the Hebrew language which has yet been produced.

While it was suggested by Justus Olshausen's "Lehr-

buch", it is not an epitome of that work, but a really

independent production.

Starting with the hypothesis that the Hebrew is

not the most ancient member of the Semitic family

of languages, the author has derived all the Hebrew

forms by means of comparative analysis, from a more

ancient Semitic language , which is best represented by

the Arabic.

Although a competent critic may differ from the

author in some of his conclusions , he will still recog-

nize the hand of a master, and will acknowledge that

vm teanslatoe's pbeface.

the student may obtain a clearer conception of the

Hebrew forms, by the diligent study of this book.

The English edition is perhaps superior to the

German in the following particulars. 1) The author

has thoroughly revised and improved the original text.

2) The paragraphs on the prose and metrical accents

have been added by Prof. Fbanz Delitzsch at the request

of Prof. BiCKBLL. 3) A large table of Semitic characters,of which the Egyptian letters were furnished by Prof.

Ebees, has been prepared by Dr. EtrTiNG of Strassburg,

an eminent authority in this department.

The notes which are marked with a star, the table

of contents, and the indexes, which were lacking in

the German edition, have been added by the translator.

In closing, the translator tenders his best thanks to

Prof. BiCKBLL for his lively interest in the work, and to

Prof. Delitzsch for many valuable suggestions.

Leipzig, January 1877.

COlifTENTS.

Translator's preface vii

I.

HISTORY OE THE HEBREW LANGMfiE AND WRITING.

1. HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE.SEOTIOir

1. Division of the Semitic family of languages 1

2. Their specific character 1

3. Common origin of languages 24. The Arabic more antique in form than the Hebrew . . 35. Dialectical differences 4

6. Lesdcal and grammatical archaisms of the Pentateuch . 5

7. Golden age of Hebrew literature 6

8. Substitution of the Chaldee for the Hebrew 7

9. Hebrew grammarians .7

2. HISTORY OF WRITING.

10. Origin of the Semitic characters . . . . ... 911. Form of the Aramaic letters 1012. The square characters . . 10

13. Bickell's transcription of the consonants 11

14. The syllabic character of the Hebrew 12

15. Development of the punctuation 13

16. Tiberian and Assyrian system 14

17. Bickell's transcription of the vowels 15

18— 20. Doctrine of the accents by Prof. Delitzsch . . . 1521. Pausal heightening (lengthening) ... . . ... 23

X CONTENTS.

II.

PHONOLOGY.

1. CONSONANTS.SECTION PAGE

22. Classification of Hebrew consonants 25

23. Origin of sibilants. Harder and smother sounds of Ayin

and Ghetli 26

24. Rules for the aspiration of the 6, g, d, 1c, p, t. . . . 27

25— 27. Transposition and doubling of consonants .... 2728— 29. Dagesh forte impUcitum said, co^anpensative length-

ening '. 29

30. A syllable can scarcely ever either begin or end in He-brew with two consonants 30

31—34. Changes in the vowel consonants y and v. . . . 3035. Aphaeresis of n and I 34

36. Consonantal and quiescent Aleph 35

2. VOWELS.

37. Origin of the long vowels. Apocopation of the short

final vowels 36

38. Shortening of a long vowel which was in an originally

closed syllable . . 37

39. Divisions of Hebrew vowels 3740. Character of the originally long vowels 38

41— 49. Eules for the short vowels, and their applicationto a, i, and u 38

50— 51. No real diphthongs in Hebrew ... . . 4352. Auxiliary vowels 44

53. Favorite vowels with the gutturals . . 45

54— 59. Half vowels 46

III.

TEE DOCTEINE 01 THE FORMATION OP STEMS.

60. Origin of stems, nouns and verbs . ... .4961. Suppression of a short vowel in primitive Semitic . 5062. Transposition of qatla, gitla, qiitla to qtala, gtila, gtula 5063. Qatala the oldest form of the stem of triliteral roots 50

CONTENTS. XI

BBCTXON PAGE64. Qatila and qatula (Heb. qatel and qatoT) formed through

the weakening of a to * or m 5165. Qitala, qutala 51

66. Formation of the active kal participle 5167. The infinitive absolute, and passive participle kal . . 5268. The imperative, construct infinitive and future kal . . 5369. Qtala, gtila, and especially qatla, qitla, qutla as fan-

\ damental forms of the nonn 5370—71. The plurals of qatla, qitla, qutla from qatala,

qitala, qutala 55

72. Monosyllables vrich have lost the third consonant . . 5673. Keduplicated forms 56

74. Fundamental form of the piel 5775— 77. The prefixes of the noun and verb ha, hin (na)

and hit 6878. The prefix ma belongs only to the nominal formation 5979. Prefixes ya and ta 60

80. The indefinite ending ma, more frequently na . . . . 6081. Patronymics and abstracts 61

IV.

DOCRTIM OE TEE FORMATION OE WORDS.

1. PRONOMIfTAL INFLECTION.

82. Personal pronouns 62

83. Demonstratives ' 63

84. Eelative, interrogative and indefinite 64

2. DECLENSION.

85. Declension by means of three affixes 64

86. The definite mas. accus. sing, represents the stem . . 65

87— 88. The nominative ending u and the gen. i . . . . 6689— 90. Formation of the plural 6791. The indefinite form assumes the suffix ma 6892. Feminine formation 68

93— 94. Feminine plural and dual 7095— 97. Distinction between the status absolutus and

constructuB 71

98. Volatilization in an open pretonic syllable 73

UI CONTENTS.

lEOIIOS PAGE

99. Exchange of stems (Metaplasm) . 74

100. Euphonic doubling 74

101. Elision of final ap before the endings of the feminine,

the plural and the suffixes 75

102. The endings iyya and uyya 75

103— 104. The suffixes alone, and in combination withnouns 76

105— 106. Changes before suffixes 77107. Unusual forms of declension. 79

108—109. Numerals 81

3. CONJUGATION.

110. Formation of the different numbers and persons of

the perfect kal 82

111. Vav consecutivum 83

112— 113. Fundamental form of the constr. infin., imper.and fut . 84

114. Formation of the future 85

115. The oohortative 87

116. The infinitive absolute and active participle ... 88117. Niphal 88

118— 119. Piel and pual 89120— 121. Hiphil and hophal 90122. Quadriliterals 91

123— 124. Yerhs primae gutturalis, primae Aleph . ... 92125. Verbs mediae guUuralis 93

125— 127. Verbs tertiae guUuralis and tertiae Aleph . . 94128. Verbs primae nun 95129. Verbs mediae geminatae 95130— 131. The niphal and hiphil of the verbs mediae ge-

minatae 96

132. The poel, poal, and hithpoel 97133— 134. Yerhs primae vav and yod .... 98135— 136. Verbs mediae vav and yod ... . . .99136—138. Verbs tertiae vav (yod) 100139— 141. Suffixes 102142— 145. Inflection of particles 103

V.

SYITAS.Section page

146. The Status constructus 108

147. Position and comparison of the adjective 108

148. The accusative 108149. The relative 109

150. Numerals 109

151. Tenses 109

152. Contiunation of a chain of thought 110

153. The jusive and the cohortative 110154. The infinitive absolute ... Ill155. Interrogative sentences Ill

Reading exercises . 112

Paradigm of the regular verb 115— 120

INDEXES

:

1. Names 121

2. Subjects 123

3. Hebrew words . 128

I.

HISTORY OF THE HEBEEW LANGUAGEAND WRITING.

1. HISTORY or THE LAN&UAGE.

§. 1. The Semitic family of languages, whicli is

thus named because all the descendants of Shem orig-inally belonged to it, may be divided into three mainbranches: 1) Arabic together "with Himyaric and Ethio-

pic; 2) Aramaic, which is indigenous to Syria, Mesopo-

tamia and Babylon, including Syriac, Mandaic, Chaldee

and Samaritan; 3) Hebrew with Phoenician or Canaan-

itic. The position of the unquestionably Semitic As-

syrian of the cuneiform inscriptions and of the so-called

half Semitic in Africa has not yet been definitely de-

termined. All the Semitic languages are now dead

except the Arabic, the Amharic and the Tigre, which

are cognate with the old Ethiopic, Geez, and the remnants

of the modern Syriac dialects in Kurdistan and the

Anti-Lebanon.

§. 2. The specific character of the present form

of the Semitic family of languages consists in the dis-

syllabic nature of the roots, their apparently merely

ideal and vowelless existence, and in the expression of

BicKEiiii's Outlines. 1

2 1. HISTOET OF THE LANatTACfE.

different shades of thought through internal inflection,

that is through a change of the radical vowels, or the

doubling of the radical consonants. This internal in-

flection however is merely apparent. Since it is a sec-

ondary, mechanical phenomenon which has arisen

through vocal laws. Hence in itself it has nothing to

do with the modification of the idea. ^ The dissyllabic

roots arose from the original monosyllable in a pre-

historic age, before there was any sharp discrimination

between the noun and the verb, through reduplication,

addition of suffixes, insertion of vowels and in other

ways. This is indicated by the pronominal roots; the

conjugation pilpel, e. g. bsbs kilkel, which was orig-

inally halhala from the root bls; and through the

kindred signification of many roots which have two

consonants in common.

§. 3. It follows from the preceding paragraph,

that in the manner of formation*, there was originally

' The seeming arguments for an internal inflection are very

much weakened when we compare the Hebrew with the Arabicforms, e. g. bap qatal, b^j? qittel, b'^ppll higtil, Araibic qatala,C[attala, 'agtala. Another class is shown even by parallel He-

brew forms to be a later formation, e. g. the participle bDipgidttl, from c[dtil in the intransitive verbs and the mediae r, has

the same form as the third sing. maso. of the perfect', compare

sbM male\ from malP, dp qam from qavam. The doubling of theconsonant is either merely euphonic or has arisen from the orig-

inal reduplication of the root. Several vowel changes indeed

(e. g. in the passive) have not yet been explained, but judging

from the analogy of the apparently internally inflected German,

in which all the variations of the root can be mechanically ex-

plained, this is due to our unfamiliarity with the old Semitic

forms.

^ Essentially the same princijfles underly the formation of all

the different languages. Isolation, agglutination and inflection

THE AKA3I0 MORE ANCIENT THAN THE HEBREW. 3

no difference between the Semitic and the other families

of languages , and that nothing prevents the assumptionof a common origin. Moreover a nearer relationshipof the Semitic with the Indo - Germanic and Egyptianis unmistakable, although the laws for the substitutions

of sounds do not yet seem to be established with absolutecertainty. 1

§. 4. Although the Hebrew has a more ancientliterature than any of the Semitic family, yet othermembers of that family have preserved a more antiqueform. A large proportion of the dentals, which haveall been retained in Aramaic, has been in Arabic par-tially, and in Hebrew as well as in Ethiopic and Assyr-ian entirely, changed to sibilants so that the Aramaic

d (t), t (n), t (d) frequently correspond to the Arabic

do not exclude each other but are rather to be considered as

successive stages in the development of language. Originally there

were only monosyllabic roots (isolation), which at first were

human echoes of an audible action, and with which were connectedother sensuous significations by enallage sensuum and supersensuous

ones by analogy. Some roots gradually became affixes (agglu-tination) through connection with others under a common accent.Then through the purely mechanical interaction of the roots and

affixes upon each other, and other vocal laws, which were gen-

erally connected with the accentuation, an apparent change of

the root itself arose (internal inflection). Inflection is simply the

joining together of roots, hence the symbolism of sound only obtains

in the formation of roots, but never in the inflection. The same

principles explain other supposed Semitic peculiarities, e. g. the

occurence of pronominal suffixes (which are also found in the

Indo-Germanio Persian), and prefixes (just as ego sum and sum

ego are one and the same).

1 *F,or the reciprocal relation of the Indo-Germanic and Semitic

family see Friedrich Delitzsch's "Studien fiber Indogermanisch-

Semitische Wurzelverwandtschaft", Leipzig 1873.

1. HISTORY OP THE LANG0AOB.

dz (i), ts (e), tg (Ji), Hebrew z (t), * (ffl), f (a.)

The short vowels in Hebrew are commonly heightened

in the accented syllable, and in the first open syllable

preceding the accent, while on the contrary they

vanish from the second open syllable preceding the

accent leaving only a sheva behind them. The vowel

consonant v is very frequently transformed to y without

the influence of an i. The short vowels are often

rejected at the end of a word, hence the insertion of

an auxiliary vowel is often occasioned. The earlier

wealth of forms has, in consequence of the falling

away of the final vowels, and the disappearance of

many varieties of inflection, only partially maintainedits place. In all these respects, especially in its vo-

calization, the Arabic is the more ancient language,

since it is determined by only a few vocal laws, espec-

ially those which concern the vowel consonants, almost

all of which existed already in the primitive Semitic.

§. 5, With reference to dialectical differences onlythis is certain that the Ephraimites pronounced s (e)like s (d) Jud. xii, 6. Bottcher's ^ discovery of three

provincial dialects EpJiraimitic , Judaic and Simeonitic

in the text of the Old Testament is not satisfactorily

established. — On the other hand the poetry is distin-guished from the prose of the Scriptures as follows;

1) through the rhythmical parallelism of the two membersof each verse, 2) partially through the union of versesinto strophes, 3) linguistically through the use of pecul-iar designations, especially epitheta ornantia e. g.ynia-ija Mm sah(a)g, sons of pride, is equivalent to beastsof prey, Job. xxviii, 8; xli, 26, 4) through fuller

' *"Ausfuhrliches Lehrbuch der hebraischen Sprache", Leipzig1866, I, §. 28—37.

ARCHAISMS OF THE PENTATEUCH.

unapOcopated or uncontracted forms. Compare -ba 'el,b» 'al, poetic 'bs 'ele', iby 'al^, from the earlier Hlay,'alay, further the suffixes of the 3. plural masc. in to,TOO, instead of tj-, -to, etc.

§. 6. The language of the oldest Mosaic periodi. e. in the Pentateuch, when compared with that ofa later age, exhibits lexical as well as grammaticalarchaisms. The use of the masculine form n^iji /iw'instead of the feminine N^rt M is especially noticeable.The former is employed in the Pentateuch one hujidred „ ,and ninety five times, while the latter occurs only eleven ^f^///times. In the same way the masculine form n»3 na'(a)ris used instead of the feminine him 7ia'(a)ra with onlyone exception, Deut. xxii, 19. The pronouns TiikTi

hallazd instead of the later form "CsTt hallaz. and thet — _ '

apocopated form btjln ha'el for Tham ha'tlld occur onlyin the Pentateuch. There are masculine infinitives fromtertiae vav and yodh roots, as TWV 'aso, Gen. 1, 20,nk"! rfo'. Gen. xlviii, U, instead of niios; 'aso"^, nis'irfols; regular strong forms ihs ne'^on for nn fels =titt, netint. Numb, xx, 21; Gen. xxxviii, 9, fullerendings e. g. un for u in the plural of the perfect,Deut. viii, 3, 16, and in the imperfect where it occursone hundred and five times * ; harder sounds e. g. pna

fdMq which occurs twelve times in the Pentateuch andonly once elsewhere instead of the later softer form

pniB sahdq; defective modes of writing, e. g. D for im,

• * Compare Ewald, "Lehrbnch der hebraischen Sprache" (Got-

tingen 1870), §. 502 b. Although this form of the imperfect is

not confined to the Pentateuch,yet it is especially frequent there.

See Keil, "Lehrbuch der historisch-kritisohen Einleitung in die

kanonischen und apokryphischen Schriften des Alten Testaments"

Frankfurt a. M. 1873, p. 44.

Q 1. HISTOKY OP THE LANGUAGE.

n for 6th, in the imperfect ;; for na \ provided this is

not to be explained as a remnant of an old kind of

Aramaic formation; unnsual formations of stems, e. g.

dip'i yequ'm, Gen. vii, 4, 23; and forms which sub-

sequently are only used in poetry e. g. the case-endings

0, as yisj-in'^n haye'i6-dr(e)g Gen. i, 24, and i Si-i •'n^S.l

genu'^pi yom Gen. xxxi, 39, compare §. 87— 88; thesuffix of the third masc. sing. w;;. e-M, ^lii^Mb lemine-

hu Gen. i, 12, which is another form for 6 etc.

§, 7. The golden age of Hebrew literature was

during the period of David and Solomon after the middle

of the eleventh, and of Isaiah during the eighth cent-

ury. The decline of the Hebrew language begins after

the age of Jeremiah and is characterized as follows.

1) The orthographical system is changed. The scriptio

plena is more frequently employed with merely heightened

vowels, and a phonetic rather than an etymologic

manner of writing is used. 2) Later unorganic forms

appear e. g. the suffixes of the 2. fern. plur. nsa -hhdna

Ez. xiii, 20; xxiii, 48 ff.; of the 3. fern. plur. iijrt

hana Ez. i, 11, compare §. 42 and njrt^ a-hena 1 K.

vii, 37. 3) There is a strong infusion of Aramaisms,

which were hitherto confined almost exclusively to the

poetical style, e. g. compare a) Chaldee forms of the

infinitive as if-^iz maddff for ny^ dd'Ca)'^, 2 Chron. i, 10,ntU/Sa baqqdm for iBjpa haqqes Esther v, 8; filsSiii hag-gala for bistln haggil Esth. iv, 14; h) pronouns and suf-fixes of the second fem. sing, of which the final sound

is % e. g. TIN 'aty for tiN 'ai Jerem. xi, 15, "^i" fi for

1 * Compare Gesenius, "Hebraische Grammatik" (herausgegeben

Ton C. Rodiger, Leipzig 1872), §. 104, 3, where it is remarked,

that in the Pentateuch simply"ina often stands for fi5 nd espec-

ially after vav consecutivum e. g. Ex. i, 18, 19 ; vx, 20.

HEBREW GBAMMARIAN3.

"sf-n- ex ; c) suffixes of the third masc. sing, to the plural

ifii o-hi instead of t^n av Ps. cxvi, 12; d) Ethpael for

the Hithpael 2 Chron. xx, 35; e) plurals in in insteadof im; /) many abstract substantive formations etc.

§. 8. The extinction of the Hebrew and the sub-stitution of the Chaldee in its place is due to the

Babylonian captivity. This is confirmed by the use ofthe Chaldee in Daniel i, and the original author whoaccording to Esra v, 4 lived at the end of the sixthcentury, by the Aramaic composition of the Persianedicts to the Jews, and by Nehem. viii, 8; compareMegilla^ 3* and Nedarim » '61^. The fact that thewriters after the captivity use better Hebrew than thosewho wrote shortly before it, or during the exile provesthat they were writing in a dead language and sought

to adapt themselves to classical models. — The newHebrew of the Mishna, the Midrashim, and the rab-

binical literature is merely a later artificial development.

§. 9. The grammatical treatment of the Hebrewdates from the tenth century. It began with the rab-

binical and Karaitic Jews in the Orient and in Spain,

with Saadya (f 942), Abul-Walid (f about 1030), Aben

Ezra (f 1167); more particularly however in the rest of

Europe after the beginning of the twelfth century, with

Joseph, Moses and David Kimchi, who flourished about

the beginning of the thirteenth century, and Elias Levita

(f 1549). The study of Hebrew was introduced among

the Christians after the thirteenth century, Raimundus

' *Chapters ii, 4— vii of Daniel and iv, 8— vi, 18 of Ezraare written in Chaldee.

2 * The treatise in the Talmud which hears this name treats of

the Purim festival and the reading of the book of Esther.' *Nedarim considers the different kind of vows and their

obligatory force.

8 1- HISTOEY OF THE lANGlTAGE.

Martini (f after 1286), Nicolaus Lyranus (f 1340),Perez di Valencia (f 1491). The first grammars were

by Anton de Lebrija (f 1544) and by John Eeuchlin

(t 1522). The science of the Hebrew language in the•sixteenth century was entirely dependent upon rab-

binical instruction. ,In the seTenteenth century although

it was pursued, with erudition it was unfruitful. Every

interest was made subservient to the punctation, theprimitive existence and absolute correctness of which

was demanded in the interest of the sufficiency andperspicuity of the Bible (John Buxtorf, senior). It was

customary to explain the linguistic phenomena throughas unhistorical a systein as that of the tres morae ^

(Alting t 1697, Danz f 1727). About the beginning ofthe eighteenth century Alb. Schultens (f 1750) through

the comparative study of the Arabic paved the way fora better method. Towards the end of the same centurysuch grammarians as Vater (f 1826) and Jahn (f 1816)sought to emancipate themselves from the rabbinical tra-dition and to pursue the grammar with more simplicityand taste. Against this tendency to arbitrariness anda contempt for detailed examinations, Gesenius (f 1842)established the empirical facts of the language, andinvoluntarily became an apologist for the Jewish tra-dition. Ewald (f 1875) indicated the higher ends ofa scientific treatment of the language, but Justus 01s-haus n first succeeded by the consistent use of thehistorico- critical and comparative method in tracingback the linguistic phenomena to their origin. Bottcher's

(t 1863) great work* is valuable as a collection ofmaterials but in other respects it is a step backwards.

^ *See Gesenius, "Geschichte der hebraischen Sprache", 123.^ * "Ausfiihrliclies Lehrbuch der hebraischen Sprache, nach

dcm Tode des Verfassers herausgegeben und mit ausfuhrlicben Ke-giatern versehen von J. Miihlau", 2 Bde., Leipzig 1866—68.

2. HISTORY OP WEITIN&.

§. 10. The Semitic characters were not invented ^

by the Phoenicians, but arose from the Hieratic forms

of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, from which all the written

phonetic systems have arisen through the medium ofthe Semitic letters with the exception of the Japanese

syllabic signs , and the cuneiform characters * (Le-

normant ^, Lauth*). Others admit only an indirect

derivation. They hold that the Shemites transferredthe acrophonic ^ principle of the hieroglyphics to

their own language, but a comparison of the letters

I The art of writing was never invented at all, but has constantly

arisen from the drawings of objects, which have gradually become

the designation of the sound with which the language indicated

the object, and finally that of the initial element of this sound.

The picture of a mouth at first represented hieroglyphically the

notion mouth, then the sound ro, which in Egyptian is equivalent

to mouth, and finally the letter r. The Mexican and essentially

also the Chinese system of writing are based entirely upon the

ideographic principle. The cuneiform art of writing, which was

transferred by a Turanian people to the Assyrians and the Per-

sians, and the Egyptian hieroglyphics associate the ideographic

with the phonetic principle, yet in such a way that the latter

always predominates.

' *See Mr. Joachim Menant, "Le Syllabaire Assyrien. Expose

des elements du systeme phonetique de I'ecriture anarienne" (Pre-

miere partie, Paris 1860. Seconde partie, 1873).

' See his " Introduction a un memoire sur la propagation de

I'alphabet phenicien" Paris 1866.

* See the "Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der

Wissenschaften" (1867), S. 84-124.

^*That is the designation of the letter through the picture

of an object beginning with the same sound as the letter was

to represent, compare the origin of b in the table.

10 2. HISTORY OF WEITINO.

in the table indicates that they have been directly

borrowed.

§. 11. Originally all the members of the Semitic

family used the old so-called Phoenician system of

writing ^ which was employed before the sixth century

in Nineveh and Babylon together with the cuneiform

characters. Since that time the Aramaic letters have

been formed in a peculiar manner, especially through

the opening of the heads of a, n, y, ^, e. g. upon the

talent of Abydos *, which represents the figure of a lion.

This appears more plainly upon the coins and seals of

the Persian satraps of anterior Asia, and still more

evidently in the Aramaic inscriptions and papyrus from

Egypt. At a later period the shaft, in several letters,

is bent towards the left in order to render a con-

nection possible with what follows. Thus during the

last centuries before Christ several peculiar kinds of

writing were gradually developed, of which the Palmy-

renian as the nearest source of the Hebrew squarecharacters possesses the greatest interest for us.

§. 12. Among the Jews there are two differentkinds of writing. The older which is still found uponcut ^ stones and the coins of the Machabees (even uponthose of Bar-Cochba * A. D. 132) is an antique Phoe-

1 *By far the oldest example of this kind of writing wouldbe the inscription of the Moabite king, Mesa, which dates fromthe beginning of the ninth century before Christ. Doubts have

however been recently raised in regard to its genuineness.* *See de Vogue, "Melanges d'archeologie Orientale", Paris

1868, p. 179.

' The Israelitic seals, found at Nineveh, must be older thanthe captivity, comp. Levy, "Siegel und Gemmen", Breslau 1869.

* *See Madden's "History of Jewish coinage", London 1862,p. 203 ff.

THE SQUARE CHABACTBHS. H

nician and essentially identical with the Samaritan.

The present so-called square characters occur after 176B. C. upon several inscriptions of the second and first

centuries, which have been discovered hy De Vogue.*They have evidently arisen from the Palmyrenian, andare the result not of a gradual change in the char-

acters (K.opp2, Hupfeld *), hut of an interchange ofthe old (Phoenician) with the new Araniaic (especiallyPalmyrenian), which at the latest has taken place since

the second century before Christ. For some time bothsystems were in use side by side until at last the older

was entirely forgotten. There is now no need of refutingthe opinion that the quadrata has been the sacred char-

acter of the Hebrews from the beginning. At the same

time its derivation from the Babylonian (Talmud*

Origen ^, Jerome ^, Bleek '^) is rendered impossible by

reason of its near relationship to the Palmyrenian char-

acters. The ligatures which were customary in the

older quadrate writing have been relinquished, on the

other hand the upper blocks upon the letters J I a J Ji L/ y(:tTD5y2£ffl) have been introduced.

§. 13. We transcribe the Hebrew consonants as

> See the "Revue archeologique" (1864), IX, 200.

2 *See Kopp's (f 1834) "Bilder und Schriften der Vorzeit",

II, 51 ff. and 87 fP.

3 *Herman Hupfeld (f 1866) in the "Studien und Kritiken"

(1830), S. 256 ff. and in his "Ausfiihrliohe hebraische Grammatik"

Marburg 1841, I, 39.

^ *Bab. Sanhedrin 21'>. Jer. Megilla I. Halacha 9.

» *0rigeni8 Hexapla, I, 86 ed. Montf.

" *In the beginning of his Prologus Galeatus.

' *See his Einleitung.

1'2 2. HISTORY OF WEITINa.

follows: N '; n 5, P'; a ^, Y! 1 ^^5 §; n A;, n v; t z;

1 ^; " ?; ^ ^Z''; => ^j 5C; ^ ^; '^ m; a w; p s;

y '; D ^, 9; 5£ f; p g-i 1 »•; lU s, s; n «, S^. A, dia-

critical point discriminates is s from ffl s. While the

aspirated pronunciation of the n s s i s a is indicated only

exceptionally by Eaphe (5) the unaspirated pronun-

ciation is shown by an internal point in the letters

(Dages lene). A final Tt is only a sign for a final vowel,and is therefore to be omitted in the transcription

unless its character as a consonant is fixed by an

internal point (Mappik). The reduplication is also in-

dicated by an internal point (Dages forte). The letters

s 53 3 a It have a special form at the end of a word

^ a "I C] y (partially in the old square Palmyrenianand Hauranian writing). The letters Q n V !i n can

be widened at the end of a line so as to avoid the

division of words. — The letters also serve as numerals,e. g. N— a = 1—9, 1— 2t = 10—90, p—n := 100—400,

'JQ n V = 500—900, n again = 1000 etc., the

combinations M"', "ii are avoided out of reverence for

the name Wir^ and id, tu are used instead.

§• 14. The Semitic writing still retains its original

syllabic character in this respect that it is vowelless.

This principle which was strictly maintained in thePhoenician was at an early period so far modified in

Hebrew that i become the substitute for u (and 6 whichwas originally av or a), and 1 far i (and e, a whichhave arisen from ay). This is called scriptio plena.

The vowel a was only indicated at the end of a wordby n, which could also indicate the other long and

' *The aspirated pronunciation of the n D S ^ S 3 is representedby the Greek letters p, y, S, %, tp, 3^.

^ *At the end of a syllable YoS should be pronounced likefinal j in German , "in Mj, lia goj are not diphthongs.

PUNCTUATION. 13

heightened! vowels (e. g. n— , n— , n—) except i anda. Thus the short vowels were entirely unindicated,the long vowels were in many cases undetermined, andeven the value of the vowels themselves was doubtful,since the vowel letters were at the same time con-sonants. Therefore after the dying out of the languagean urgent necessity impelled to a system of punctuationwhich was gradually developed.

§. 15. The development of the punctuation hasprohably passed through the following stages. 1) Orig-inally a diacritic sign designated the more unusual,less simple form (Samaritan diacritic line)'. 2) Anothersign came into use which expressed the opposite ofthe former. Thus in Syriac the point beneath theletter indicated the simple monosyllabic form of theverb, e. g. pe'al, and that of monosyllabic nouns likedin, sev^ar; on the other hand that above the letter, theless simple, unexpected, generally dissyllabic form either

with or without the reduplication of the second radical,

e. g. pd'el, pa"'el, and nouns with the reduplication ofthe second radical, as dayydn. In this way the oldersign by an easy transition came to indicate a vowel(especially a), the reduplication, or the non-aspiration,

while the later sign indicated successively a Seva and

then the vowel i as the opposite of a or the aspirated

pronunciation; but u was most frequently indicated

by the vowel consonant. The simpler basis, which

preceded the Palestinean and Babylonian system of

punctuation must have been of the same sort, comp.

§. 16. Both possess only two signs in common Vajesand Rd((>e (or Hdte(p, which also serves as Seva). The

former corresponds to the Syriac point above the letter

(Kushai) and Arabic a, the latter to the one beneath

1 *Comp. §§. 39, 42.

14 2. HISTORY OE WEITING.

it (Rukkach) and the Arabic i. 3) The two (or with u

three) fundamental vowels were divided through repeated

distinctions into their different shades of sound. This

is still evident in Syriac, where at a later period the

two simple points were increased through the intro-

duction of double points to eight; it is not so evident

however in Hebrew by reason of our unfamiliarity withthe history of the punctuation.

§. 16. Since neither Jerome nor the Talmud evinceany knowledge of the punctuation, the assumption of

its originality is an error, which requires no refutation.

Still the development of the vowel signs must havebegun soon after the close of the Talmud. ^ Our presentand only current punctuation conforms to the Tiberianor Palestinean system. Besides this there was a Bab-ylonian, or Assyrian system, which was discovered in

1839, in the Crimea, in a manuscript which dates fromthe year 916.^ It has only six vowels, Dayes and Ra9e(Hateif). In an unaccented closed syllable the Ea9e isplaced underneath, in an unaccented acute syllable ' overthe vowel, on account of which the Me^ey becomes super-fluous (§. 18). Instead of Pa^ah with Hatecp writtenunderneath Qere is employed according to the Arabicpronunciation. All the signs stand over the consonants.*

• * According to Emanuel Deutsch the so-called JerusalemGemara was redacted at Tiberias about 390 A. d. and the Bab-ylonian at Sora 365—427 a. d. The codex of the latter howeverwas not closed until the end of the fifth century A. d. See hisLiterary Remains, London 1874, p. 40.

= *Dr. Hermann Strack of Berlin edited a facsimile of thisentire manuscript, Petropoli 1875.

' An acute syllable is one which ends in a doubled consonant.* *S. Pinsker, "Einleitung in das babylonisch-hebraische

Punktationssystem", Wien 1863. See also the back of the lastleaf of Strack's "Hosea et Joel"-

AOCENTITATION. 15

§. 17. Our vowel system may be transcribed as

follows : -:r a, a; -^ a; -i-rr e; -:r e; i-r:- a; -j- e, a;^^- i; -r- i; i ^; — o; -^ o; 1 u; — u. The vowelswhich are undesignated are short. Those above which ashort dash is written are heightened and those written

with a circumflex are originally long. Seva — is usedeither to indicate a vowelless letterf Seva quiescem) or

a half vowel e (Seva mobile)-, the latter appear? in

compounds as Hatecp pa'iaJi — a, Hate^ seyol -^ e,Hate

16 2. HISTOEY OF WEITING.

words according to their sense. They arrange the verse

as a thought in the form of a clause according to

logical and grammatical laws. Their predominant

function is musical. Yet no reliable tradition has been

retained regarding their musical value. The can-

tillation of the Thora and the Haftaroth, i. e. the

prophetical pericopes varies, in the German and Spanishrites. Concerning the punctuation of Job, Proverbs

an^ Psalms we have no complete' account. Theold grammarians furnish only fragmentary notices

respecting the way in which some of the accents shouldbe sung. Besides the interest of the grammarian is

fixed upon the accents as marking the tone - syllable

of single words, and the relation of the words to eachother in the iarticulation of the sentence. In the former

respect the accentuation is of great importance for the

elementary and formal part of the grammar, in thelatter for its syntactical part, since the accents indicate

e. g. the genitive relation of the words and the ellipticalrelative sentences. It is however of far greater im-

portance for the exegesis e. g. Lev. ix, 19, where thehalving of the verse determines what portion of thebullock is to be brought and what portion of theram; and Judges v, 18, where the name Naphtali,with questionable propriety, is connected with the firstmember of the verse. But the most important functionof the accents for the grammar is as indicators of thetone-syllable of words. They shew us that the primaryaccent of the word commonly rests upon the final syl-lable, but not monotonously, for omitting the fact thatin words of more than one syllable a secondary accentor deep tone, which is indicated by Me^ey, is wont toprecede the primary accent or Ugh tone, there aremany cases in which the primary accent rests upon thepenultima, since the following are unaccented: 1) final

EBTKOGRRSSION OP THE ACCENT. 17

syllables whose vowel is only an auxiliary e. g. -isd

si(^(e)r, liber, hyi yi-iO)l emigrabit; 2) tlie old accusative

ending a of the noun e. g. nb'^b Idyla noctu, and the

cohortative a in future and imperative, but only, whena long vowel precedes, e. g. hjia bi'na, 'n'y^^i nas-

l%\a; 3) all the personal suffixes, except -Mm, -Mn,-Mm, -Mn, -i', -6' (because it is contracted out of a-M) and -ka; this last suffix however remains un-accented after a long vowel, in pausa and iuigthe

energetic future; 4) the final syllables of several

verbal forms, viz. the 1. sing., 1. plur. and 2. sing,

masc. of the perfect, the 2. and 3. fern. plur. of the

imperat. and future; 5) the final syllables of certain

other forms (viz. 3. fem. sing, and 3. plur. in the per-

fect, 2. fem. sing, and 2. masc. plur. in the imperative,

2. fem. sing, and 2. and 3. masc. plur. in the future) of

the verbs mediae geminatae and of the verbs mediae v, y,as well as in the hi'cpil in the regular verb; 6) the final

syllable of the historical mode, modus consecutivus, in

which the tone frequently falls back upon the penul-

tima. Moreover the accentuation shows that this ret-

rogression occurs not unfrequently in other cases ac-

cording to strictly rhythmical laws, e. g. when a word

with the primary accent upon its first syllable imme-

diately follows a word with the accent upon the last

as iV ntoy 'am 16' Gen. ix, 24, ^b t3i^".!^^ viheyi'^em 1%

Ex. xix, 5, but not when the first word ends in a

closed syllable with 6, u or i. This legal retrogression

of the tone contributes very much to heighten the

euphony of the language through the diversification of

the rhythm. Our grammarians hold that in Hebrew

the antepenult never receives the primary accent.

There are however circumstances which occasion the

retrogression of the primary accent as far as the ante-

penult, e. g. d':a lanya ni'CeJremii, may(i)m Ex. xv, 8.

BioKEi.ii's Outlines. "

18 2. HISTORY OF WEITING.

§. 19. The accents, as signs of interpunctuation

are dmded into, Separatives (distimctim) or rulers, andUnitives (conjunctivi) or servants. That the accentuation

preeminently serves a musical purpose appears from

the following reasons, 1) that the logical discrimination

needed proportionally far fewer separatives; 2) that

many unitives have been found which do not indicate

various degrees of connection, but only represent dif-

ferent kinds of modulation; 3) that there is a so-called

prosaic accentuation, which is distinguished from the

metrical not logically, but only musically, since it is

based upon a more manifold, richer, more artistic and

pathetic cantillation ; 4) that even short verses are ac-

centuated after the analogy of the longer, which can

only have arisen from an effort to secure a symmetrical

recitation. There are however verses which form such

a continuity that the halving of the verse through a great

separative, or even at all, cannot be effected, e. g.

Gen. xxi, 9. Numb, ix, 1. Deut. iv, 48; v, 23.1 Chron. xxviii, 1. But as a rule the verse whetherlong or short is divided into two members. Both ac-centual systems rest upon the same dichotomic prin-ciple. The great accents are heaped upon the end ofthe verse, since its close according to the rhythmical

rule should be spoken slowly and sung with suitablecadence. Words which belong closely together arecommonly united with Maqqe^ and then receive onlyone accent. The metrical accentuation however fre-quently prefers to give the first word a unitive, as e. g.'ant in the three poetical books is never connected withMaqqe9. That the Maqqe9 serves to prevent the suc-cession of several unitives is not true; several unitives

can immediately follow one another, but never morethan six Jer. xxxv, 15. 2. Kings xviii, 14. They areall of the same logical value. The connective power,

THE PEOSE ACCENTS. 19

however, of the unitive which precedes is stronger thanthat of the one which follows, as also the disjunctivepower of the separative which precedes is stronger thanthat of the one which follows. The ascendency of themusical function is further indicated by the fact thatone word can he provided with two unitives. Thereare on the other hand only five examples, in whichone word is pointed with two separative accents. Gen.V, 29. Lev. X, 4. 2. Kings xvii, 13. Ez. xlviii, 10.Zeph. ii, 15.

§. 20. Prose accents. A) Separatives: 1) n Sil-Mq, which with S6

20 2. HISTORY OP WKITING.

2) N Merexa; 3) N Mer&ja k§(fuld, double Merex,a, whicli

occurs only fourteen times; 4) N Mehuppa^ (Mahpa-^),

always with tHe tone -syllable after the Towel, while

Yejsi^ stands outside of the word before the vowel of

the first letter; 5) N Darga; 6) N Qabmd, always over

the first letter of the tone-syllable, while Pasta stands

at the end of the word; 7) n Telisd qetannd, always

at the end of a word and inclining towards the left,

while the separative TelUd jehold stands at the beginning

of a word and inclines to the right; 8) N Galgal only

sixteen times with following Pdzer gehold; 9) N Mfayld,

which has the same form as the separative T^^hd, but

which is easily distinguishable, since it never occurs

alone, but under the same word with Silluq, Lev. xxi,

4 or 'A'inah, Numb, xxviii, 26, takes the place ofthe counter-tone. It is customary with the prepositives

and postpositives to indicate the tone-syllable by the rep-etition of the figure of the accent e. g. t|in»73ffl sem'atiia

Gen. xvii, 20. The three greatest separatives are Silluq,which closes the verse, ''A'^nah which halves it, and Se-^oltd (or its vicar SaUaUy), which, when the first hem-istich is large, halves it again, e. g. Gen. i, 7. Eachof these great separatives can only be used once in averse. Of course every verse must have a Silluq. Butverses occur, as Gen. xxi, 9, which cannot have ''A'Isnah,and consequently cannot have any Seyoltd. There arecircumstances which render ''A'isnah possible under thefirst word of a verse e. g.^ Gen. xv, 8; xxxv, 5, butnot Seyoltd, in this case Salsalell^ takes its place e. g.Gen. xxiv, 12. Next in rank to the greatest sepa-ratives follow the great separatives Zaqe

THE MBTKICAL ACCENTS. 21

JPdzer; Pdzer more than TelUa^ which is the least ofall the separatives. With the exception of the threegreatest separatives all the others can be repeated inthe verse, yet TVcpM, Re^ia', Tdres and TSlis'd cannotbe repeated immediately after each other. A singleverse of the Bible, Is. xxxix, 2, contains all the sep-

aratives. We pass over the assignment of the unitivesto the separatives, since all the separatives, assuch,

have_ the same worth. Ye'ii^, Zdqetsf yabol, andSaUdlelS appear always without any preceding ser-vants. The other separatives can be accompanied byservants or not; only Fdzer yaSoZ is never found

without a servant.

§, 20 a. In the metrical system of accentuation the

following occupy the first rank as the greatest separatives

N Silluq, NN 'Old veyoreh (Merf^id-mahpa^, and N ''A'inalitd,which again halves the second hemistich following 'Old ve-

yoreh. The second class is represented by n Re^ia'

gdhol. The third class comprises S Qinnor or Zarqd

(postpositivus) ; NN Re^ia' muyrds; n Re^ia' qatdn which

may be recognized by the fact that 'did veyoreh alwaysimmediately follows; and i 6< SalsdWi gghold, with a

separating stroke behind it. The least separatives of

the fourth class are n Deht (Titfhd initiale), which is

always before the vowel at the beginning of a word;

N Pdzer and i N Mehuppd^ Le-^armeh together with | N

^Azld (Qahmd) Le-^armeh. Dehi and Pdzer separate more

than Leya^'meh; Pdzer separates more than Le-^armeh

and less than Dehi. But in the beginning of a period

which does not allow of any 'Old veyoreh nor ''AlSna'h,

Pdzer, Ps. cxlvi, 1 and Le-^armeh, Ps. cvi, 1 some-

times have the value of this greatest separative. The

unitives in this accentual system of the three so-called

metrical books are n Mereid, n Munah, S 'MBy (upper

22 2. HISTOET OP WKITING.

Muhah), N Gdlgal or FaVaA, n Tarha, which can he

distinguished from Dehi hy its position under the tone-

syllable, N Mehuppai, N ''Azla, and n SaUdW^ qetanna.The figure of Qinnor or Zarqa in words like !iM=ip quma,

Ps. iii, 8, is Qmnori"^, which is always written over

an open syllable, preceding one which is provided with

Mereia or Mehuppa-^; its value is simply musical: the

ultima in the above wtoip is the tone -syllable, as is

always the case with following inn*' (= "'J'in) or d"'rj'bNNum. X, 35. Ps. Ixxiv, 22. The descent of the toneis intended to secure the clear pronunciation of the

colliding syllables. In both accentual systems, the

laws of transformation * furnish an important chapter for

' Tlie laws, for the transformation of separatives into

unitives in the metrical system of accents are given byS. Baer in Delitzsch's "Commentar iiber den Psalter", B. ii,1860, S. 503 sq. In the accentual system of the twenty oneprose books the following rules are to be observed. A) Pastawithout any preceding servant only stands before Zaqe9, whenthe word which should receive Zaqesp has two syllables before thetone, e. g. rryaiN Cinim)oy Ex. xxvii, 16. A long vowel, viz.Holem, QameQ or Qere, is equivalent to two syllables. If theword which receives Zaqetp does not have two syllables be-fore the tone, the servant Munah must be placed before itinstead of Pasta, e. g. Tfi&iD nri'i'7l7a5> Ex. xxvii, 14. S) Za-qetp and Ticpha can only stand before Silluq, when the wordwith Silluq or even that with Titpha has two syllables beforethe tone, e. g. "n^T-p >"l?3t: jilNI llDl^h Num. xiii, 4 (withthe servant Munah before Zaqe9). If the word with Silluqdoes not have two syllables before the tone, the servant Mergx.amust be placed instead of Ticpha; hence Zaqe9 cannot remainbefore the Mer§x.a, since Zaqe^ must not stand immediatelybefore Silluq, and so Ti1131M Di-iBis rroab Numb, xiii, 8. C) The same ruleis in force before ASmahta, e. g. QSpN IffiN fT^n iBaS-bi ';i:nGen. ix, 12, where likewise Tioha before A^nahta becomes a servant.The word rt^^n has Ti^ha, not Zaqe9, since Zaqe9 cannot

PAUSAL HEiaHTBNINO. 23

the grammarian and exegete. There are circumstancesunder which a unitive takes the place of a separativefor an absolutely rhythmical reason, just as, for rhyth-mical reasons, in the realm of Silluq great separativestake the place of unitives in order to secure an em-phatic final cadence. The rhythmical demands of thecadence also furnish reasons for changes to which thetone-syllable of the word is subject at the end or middleof the verse or even with greater distinctives withinthe verse.

§. 21. The pausa enters at the end of a sentence,especially with Silluq and 'A'^nah and in the three met-rical books with Silluq, 'Old veyored or 'A'^nah i. e.the last word undergoes certain changes in order thateach sentence when recited may have a fitting cadence.A half vowel in the penultima is heightened to itsoriginal vowel and receives the tone. Accordingly Tt^b'pqdtela is changed to fibu^ qdtala, Mias ka^eba to iinaska^eba, '^biSpp, yiqti^u' to iVap'; yiqtolu, inb lehi' to in^

Idhi, 135* 'ani' to -la^ 'ani, ibn holt to ibn hUi (original

forms qatalat, habidat, yaqtuluna , lachy, 'any, huly).

Otherwise the tone is seldom drawn back, except in

•'Sii'cj ''dno-ji, nriN "'attd, Mn^ 'atta). On the contrary inthe apocopated future the tone returns to the final syl-

lable, because this contains the stem of the word;

hence a enters instead of e. Thus Djjji vay-yaqom

becomes dpjl vay-yaqom in pausa, bjii'i vay-yiggamel

becomes ba^^l vay-yiggdmdl, '^b»n vay-yeley^, ?|b»T vay-

stand immediately before A^nahta or Silluq, and the word

't'lyy has Tebir, not Pasta, because Pasta before Titpha is not

allowable. In all these cases the accentuation is determined by

musical laws, and the exegete must beware of confounding the

musical with the logical accentuation.

24 2. HISTOEY OF WRITING.

yela%., "[bn talen, "j^n talan (original forms va yaqwm,

va yangmnil, va yalik, talin). In monosyllabic nomiiial

stems original a is often heightened to a instead of a,

e. g. yik d^^(e)i; J'rf, zar(ay, which out of pausa are

13S gd^(e)r, s>5j zdr(ay, original forms goAr, zar'. Short

accented a is heightened in the pausa, e. g. hhj> qatdl

to ba)3 qatdl, W'h may(i)m to D'^n may(i)m.

II.

PHONOLOGY.

1. COMOMUTS.

§. 22. The Hebrew consonants are divided ac-cording to their organic formation into gutturals (', A,

h, '), palatals (y, g, k, q), labials (v, b, p), dentals

(d, t, t) and sibilants (0, s, s, s, f). The letter n isa dental and m a labial nasal, Z is a dental, r vacillatesbetween gutturals and dentals. The 'Hebrew consonantsmay be distinguished 1) according to their durationinto continuatives (h, h, y, v, z, s, s, s, n, m, r, I),and explosives (the remaining letters), and 2) accordingto their degree of hardness, as softest (', y, v), soft

(h, g, b, d, z), hard (h, k, p, t, s, s, s), and hardest

C? 2? ii 9)-^ "^^^ letters v, y form a special class as

' In Ethiopic there is a labial {Fait, see Dillmann, "Gram-matik der athiopischen Sprache", Leipzig 1857, S. 45, §. 5) of

the hardest degree. The propriety of reckoning 'Ayin amongthe hardest explosives is justified by its manifold correspondence

in Aramaic to the Hebrew g, since in these cases the original tfirst became q (compare Chaldaic Np"ilS ^arqd) and then '; and it

is not invalidated by the fact that 'Ayin afterwards became almost

mute , since q has suffered the same fate in a part of the Arabic

speaking countries, See Hassan, "Grammatik der vulgar - arabi-

schen Sprache", Wien 1869, S. 5.

26 1. CONSONANTS.

vowel consonants, which easily pass over into their

corresponding vowels. The following table illustrates

the organic distinction of the letters and their relative

degrees of hardness.

TBAWSPOSITION. 27

the old Egyptian transcription ^, and lexical reasons (i. e.the different significations of some identical roots, in

which a h or 'ayin occurs); e. g. wy 'Azza, LXX. TA^oi.;pba? 'Amaleq, 'AfxaXe'x; Dfi Ham, Xa(x,- Ti^n Havva, Eu'a.

§. 24. The letters &, g, d, k, p, t when immediatelypreceded hy a vowel or half vowel Seva mobile or Hdiecf,even in a foregoing word, become aspirated. E. g. "isiafacpd/', MS'ia Mrcbfa, ''D3 Aeipt'. The aspiration ceases:

1) when the preceding word is punctuated with a largeror smaller separative accent, e. g. with Rebta' Gen. iii, 5

ai'^B 'S ki beyom; 2) when the consonant is doublede. g. "i|3 happer; 3) after an inserted auxiliary Pa'^ali

which as will be mentioned in §. 55, rem. was first

used at a very late period, e. g. fitjbia saldh(a)t, '^n\

yih(a)d. The aspiration never occurs aftef a consonant,

but after Ale9 at the end of a syllable, which is no longer

a consonant, and ;as a matter of course after final Hewhen it is merely a vowel sign (§. 13). — The greatage of this lingual phenomenon is attested through the

Aramaic and the Egyptian transcription , but (excepting

Phe) it has not yet penetrated the Arabic,

§. 25, The transposition of consonants enters the

hi^pa'el even in the primitive Semitic, since hi'i-s, hHi^-s,

hi'i-S become his-t, his-t, his-t, e. g. banp^j histabbel

for Ms-sabbil, likewise "iSniBM hista'er, nisniun histammer.

If the sibilant- is a p, the t must be brought to the same

degree of hardness, consequently to t (See the fourth

grade in the preceding table), e. g. piysii higtaddeq.

1 When ' in hieroglyphic texts corresponds to c it is tran-

scribed by characters which are equivalent to a, a, but when it

corresponds to c by characters for g, k, e. g. in Gaza. A similar

distinction is observed in such inscriptions between Semitic words,

whose n is equivalent to an Arabic _, or ^.

28 1- CONSONANTS.

In the only example for z assimilation takes place

instead of transposition, e. g. nsiri hizzakka for hiz-

dakka.

§. 26. Doubling of a consonant arises otherwise

than through the fortuitous conjunction of two identical

consonants, as in nans na'^dn-nu: 1) in certain forms

of the noun and verb (pi'el) which have resulted from

original reduplication of the roots ; 2) in consequence

of the vocal law in primitive Semitic that, as a rule,

the short vowel between two identical consonants is

cast out, or, when this is impossible, transposed that

the identical consonants may come together. Comp.30 sa^ according to §. 27 for sabb, originally sababa,

nao sdbbu from sababu, ^zb"; ydsobbu from yasubbu

transposed for yasbubu. 3) Doubling arises through

the assimilation of two consonants, especially of n to

a following consonant (bs'^. yippol for yinpol, nns na-

'idtta for naUdnta, Qisa mismm for minsdm, beforegutturals the assimilation is often omitted, compare

^nv] yinhdl), of I in ng'; yiqqdh, of y («), in several

verbs, as pk;' yi99oq, from yi-ygoq, original form ya-

vgvq (unless perhaps there is here a transition to the

verbal class primae nun), and of the * in the hi^-pa'el before dentals (155^ hiddabber, 'iriiari hittaher)..

4) Sometimes the doubling is only euphonic, either inorder to bind two words more closely together (mt na

mazzd), or in order to protect a short vowel throughthe closing of the syllable against changes e. g. D^'baagemalli'm) Stat. cstr. iV)?2ii gemalle.

§. 27. The doubling always ceases at the end ofa word, because no syllable can end with two con-sonants, comp. §. 30; besides tliis the accented finalsyllable must be heightened, according to §. 42, 1 ; only

DOUBLING. 29

a can remain short. Compare ib3 kulW with bb Mlfor AmZ^, and according to §. 19, -b3 kol-^ sor; /tislp

original form hiaibh, with niaofi ha8ihbd"ia, n'KCi yegav-

vd with IS'JT vayegdv, iSN 'ap^o' with tjN '09, inn titti

.with nn ie^ for titt. The douhling can also disappearbefore a half vowel, especially in the prefixes ye and

me hefore the piel, yet never in letters which can beaspirated, e. g. "1551] vayehahber, ia5?3fi hamebahlier,

iir^l vayehi', but laim vattebabber.

§. 28. The gutturals ^ h ' h, as well as r arenot wont to be doubled in Hebrew, nevertheless the

preceding vowel is either treated as though the doubling

had taken place, and the syllable is closed through so-

called Dayea forte implidtimi (this is almost always the

case with h and in the pi'el with h and ', seldom with

'

and never with r, compare iDnhrt hahoh(e)^, nya bi'er,

lira tihar, Nirtri hahvl\ ysjt? ni'ef), or the preceding

syllable is regarded as open and its vowel is heightened

according to §. 42. This occurs only seldom with h,

commonly with ', h, almost always with ' and always

with r, e. g. 'jiyrj ha!ay'(i)n, 't]'r[hahar, yiijli Ka'ar(e)g,

'Tj'ia bert)^. '

§. 29. When A, which is to be doubled has Qd-mgg, or Hafe^ qdnieg, the vowel before it is wont to be

heightened to a for the sake of dissimilarity. It is

heightened before h and ' only when the Qameg is

unaccented. Compare 'jiThfi hdhdzo'n, lans kdhd's, rnN

^dh&CyJv, D^iU'inrj hd/iobdsi'm, di'liiri hahdrl'm, but nrjn

hoMr, '[i^ri ha'dvo'n^ but D:?rt hd'am. This heightening

1 * There are only a few cases in whicli") is pointed witli

Dages, compare Delitzsch on Prov. iii, 8; xiv, 10.

30 1- COKSONANTS.

occurs before ' only in "'SiiNfi hffano-fi', but never

before r.

§. 30. No syllable, in Hebrew, can begin with

two consonants (except tJ^niB stdyim). To prevent this

a half vowel is inserted between them (e. g. bap q(e)tdl^

original form qtul = qutl, Arabic ''uqtul). The Arabicexpedient of prefixing an ''Ale^ prostheticum to the word

is less in favor. Compare ?ilTt< ''ezr6(ay with siTr ze-

rb(a)\ original form zirol. — Nor are two consonantsallowed at the end of a syllable, except several com-

binations with 6, (i, ^, *, ^ or g" at the end of a word,

as |?il3;;n vayydsq, Tr;;^ vayyerd, Tj^si vayye^k. Otherwise

it is always customary in such a case to insert an

auxiliary vowel, comp. §. 52. /

§. 31. The vowel consonants v, y are subject

through permutation, vocalization and elision to manyvocal laws which, with the exception of the first four

cases in this paragraph, existed even in primitive

Semitic. The letter v frequently passes over into ythrough permutation, 1) especially at the beginning of

a word e. g. nbj yaldh, originally valada, imii yose^,orig. vdsib, only a few words, as it vdv and ibi vd-lal retain v; 2) mostly also after the prefix of the

hi^pa'el, e. g. Tb^nri Miyalltb, yet forms like VT\r\!riIi'Hisvaddd' occur; 3) often in reduplicated second radical

consonants, e. g. ti»i5 qayyem; 4) almost always, whereV appears as a third radical consonant, as in ':iba gd-

luy; 5) between i and a consonant, comp. ^iy 'ir ='iyr — 'ivr, dn'^i yirds = yiyras = yivras; 6) betweena consonant and i, comp. d1|J; ydqim = yaqyim = yaq-vim. — The transformation of y into «, especiallybetween u and a consonant, is more seldom, comp.bliz) sus = mvs = suys.

ELISION. 31

§. 32. Elision of the vowel consonants occurs in

the following cases. 1) The transposed form qtil fromqitl lost its first radical' consonant through aphaeresis,

when it was a v. This is the fundamental form ofthe infinitive, imperative and future qal of a numherof primae v verbs. Comp. y'l de(ay = [v]di\ hio Se^=:z [vfSib, aia;; yese^ = yi-iib = ya-fvJSih^; likewisethe feminine infinitive of the form qtal from qatl, as

r^iu 8a^(e)y = vsab-t. 2) After a consonant va, yaelide their v, y and receive, instead of these, com-

pensative lengthening of the a to a Hehrew 6 accordingto §. 40. Comp. Dips naqom, dipa maqo'm,. Nia; ya^o'\

Tibia;', ye^oi, ']ia3 na^on from naqvam, maqvam, yabva',yibvaS, nabyan. 3) Likewise v, y between two vowels

are almost always elided'*, of course without com-

pensation ^ and then both vowels are contracted. Bythis means ava, aya become a or o (t3p qam, io sar,

nil dor, dip'; yiqqo'm, jis'; yikko'n from qavam, savar,

davar, yinqava/m, yinkavan), avi becomes S {m me^:= mavii), avu becomes 6 (luia bos = bavu^. A pre-ceding short vowel is absorbed by a following long one,

thus d^p qum has arisen from qavum. — This elisionof y, V between two vowels occurred even when the

second was one of those final vowels, which according

to §. 37, fall away in Hebrew. ^ In this case however

' The aphaeresis of the v is of course older than the in-

troduction of the future prefixes.

^ The elision does not take place, when two vowel con-

sonants follow each other as radical letters, e. g. ni'l rava =rava[ya] and in few other cases, as Ji^T ravdh, a^tj 'ayd^.

' The elision oi v, y between the two vowels was cus-

tomary even in the old Semitic, while the casting off of the orig-

inal final vowel which immediately follows rests upon the later

specific Hebrew law of final sound. Comp. Arab, ravid = ra-

32 !• CONSONANTS.

no vowel contraction could enter because in Hebrew

after tbe elision oi y, v the final vowel which imme-

diately follows is also rejected. Hence there arose only

a heightening of the preceding vowel according to

§. 42, 2. It is perhaps merely accidental that orig-

inal a[va] , a[yaj is always heightened to a and

original afvuj, a[yu] to a, e. g. nba gala (but not

gala, since with the suffix it has the form tjb.i gaUfo),a.

*

original form gala[va], TihV] 2/*Y^«) original form ya-J.

gla[vu], Mba gold, original form gala[vwm,]. When aprecedes v, y, ii remains or becomes o according to

§. 40, e. g. infin. absol. ribs galo = galavwm. But ifthe vowel which followed was long or was not the last

sound in the word, it was naturally not affected bythe laws of final sound, but remained and after theejection of » or y the short vowel was either contractedor absorbed by the long one. Comp. infin. constr. nibageWs = gelat, gela[v]-at , 3. fem. Perf. nto 'dsH^(commonly with a double feminine ending nnto 'ase-S~a) = 'astt'-t, according to §. 38 for 'asdt, from 'asav-at,^hi gdlu =; galavu, ^V] yi-^lu = yaglavuna, 'bs 'ost'

§. 33. On the contrary elision does not takeplace, but the vocalizing of y, v to i, u: 1) between aand a consonant; 2) between a homogeneous vowel anda consonant; 3) between a consonant and a homogeneousvowel (i is homogeneous with y, u with v). Then iy andyi become i, wo and vu become w, ay becomes e,av becomes o. Compare aa^'^ y^ta^ = 2/V?«P, V^vJ ^~^i'n — hibyin, ijpj ndqiy from naqiy, niBin Msd^ from

ma[y]a, with hebr. rama = ramafyaj; Arab, ya'lu = ya'lufvju,apocopated ya'lu, with hebr. ya'(a)la = ya'la[vuj, apocopatedya'(a)l = ya'lfaj.

THE VOWEL CONSONANTS. 33

huvSab, Q!ipi yaqum from yaqvum, ^fcy 'asu from 'asuv,nia he^ from bayt, a''a"'lrj Ae?^'P from haytib, nin mo^from mavi, aiBiS wo^d^ from navsah. The number of

the homogeneous vowels is increased by the fact that

according to §. 31 vi becomes yi, iv becomes iy, yu

however becomes yi, and then all three are changed

to i. Comp. 'C'117 yirds = yiyraS, yiwraS, d'^pJi heqi'm= hiqyim = hiqvim, "[la; ya^i'n = yabyin, yabyun. Onthe contrary %, i^b| gaWy, remains unchanged. — Thevocalization of the vowel consonants naturally takes

place provided they already formed the final sound of

the word in primitive Semitic, e. g. 'ona suse^ = susay.Therefore the imperative of the stems tert. v, y has

a diphthongal ending , comp. mbs gele from gelay. For

the nouns whose stat. absol. ends in a, and the stat.

cstr. in e comp. §. 95. — The ay which has arisen frome is sometimes attenuated to i (ri'iba gdli'id), and the

which has arisen from av becomes in rare cases m,

bs^i yV'X'^l = yaffil, yavkal.^ It is necessary to ac-cept the diphthongal change, contested by Olshausen

of ay to a (1-5-) for such forms as npba g(e)lana , rijiban

tv^ldna, n'^piD susaM, of which the original forms were

glayna, taglayna, susayhd, since otherwise vowel con-

sonants in the original final sound of the syllable

are never elided. — In the Hebrew composition i-yeis contracted to i, compare 'rt'^i vihi = vi y§hi\ iriwabihuha = bi yekuha.

§. 34. The vowel consonants y, v retain their

consonantal character, 1) when as first radical con-

1 *The author considers the form bs^'' as the future qal.

It is commonly regarded as a hoip'al which, in a metaplastic

way, lends to the verb bbj, to b$ capable, its imperfect, he shall

be made capable.

EiOKtiLii's Outlines. •'

34 !• CONSONANTS.

sonants they begin the syllable ^ e. g. nvi ya^a^;

2) when an nnhomogeneous vowel except a precedes,

e. g. ibia salev, iib| goluy^ li-i p'o^/, ti ziv; these com-

binations are not diphthongs and hence the hard sound

of b g d k p t follows them ; 3) when they are doubled

D»55 qiyydm, n;n hayya, ^^ gawd', TD'ij'; yivvareS; if

the doubling falls out, iyy becomes i iiaS 'i^ri', plUr.

iD-'^'iaS 'i^riyyim also di"ia;» H^ri'nij but ay, a« remain,

except in the stat. cstr., in hay, stat. cstr. in A«, ii ^au

stoi. cstr. probably i-i gfd, ibs 'alay, original form 'alayya.

4) Besides ay, av axe also retained in isolated cases,

as inibta saldvti, nbi? '««?«, S^siaia maymimm, reg-ularly however in the stat. absol. of monosyllabic nominal

forms, where a«, ay through insertion of an auxiliary

vowel become av(e)., dy(i), while in the stat. cstr. con-

traction always takes place e. g. mz mav(e)'i, n^a bdy{i)'^,cstr. ni53 mo'^, nia bH. Yet compare §. 32, Remark 1.All the rules concerning the vowel consonants may becondensed into the following sentence: v, y betweenvowels, as well as between a consonant and ''an a, areelided, in the latter case with the compensative lengthening

of a to 6f otherviise, when it is possible, they are vocal-ized, whereby v through a preceding or following i ischanged into y. •

§. 35. Besides v (comp. §. 32, 1) the following

letters, can suffer aphaeresis in the form qtal, qtil =qatl, qitl: \)nm gas for [nejgas, nffls gds(e)'^ for negas-t,in fen for netin, nn fe"^ for netin-t; 2) I in ng qah =Jeqah, nn)? qdh(ay^ = leqah-t, h in '^jb Vei ~ [hSJKk,

' In the initial sound of a word only the copula I «g beforehalf vocalized syllables, with sgva or hateip, and the labialsh, p, m is resolved into u. There are no other cases inHebrew, where the initial sound of a syllable is a vowel without'ale9.

CONSONANTAL AND QUIESCENT 'aLEO. 35

n^b lci%(ey^ = [ha]lak-t. Initial 'a is cut off from WWN'anahnu leaving nm nahnu. The h of the prefixesis usually thrown out between a half vowel and a vowel,

whereby the former vanishes, e. g. 'qbjjj^ lammal(e)i,

from le-ham-mdl(e)i, ^"^'^P.l yaqtil from ye-ha-qtil.The second vowel vanishes in da ham from DiriBbahim. Contraction enters in the suffix io^D sus6' fromsusa-hu.

§. 36. The 'Ale9 almost always retains its conson-antal power in the initial sound of the syllable, exceptin the future of some verbs prvmae ''Alecf, in which con-traction takes place between the vowel of the prefixand the auxiliary vowel (bSN''^ y^ij^l from ya-wfel^ iHNiyomar from ya-amar. In other isolated cases '0^9 iselided between two vowels, comp. nfaNb. lemd'r from le-

'emor, a'^nsa maHdyim from mfd'Sdyim, Qi'iaN'i rdiim fromrfasim, '^s'lNb ladonay from la-adSnay, the same some-

times occurs after a consonant, as in iiSNb?: melw^a from

maVwfa. Sometimes also it falls away in writing, e. g."IHN ''omdr from ''a-amdr, liffli'i lison from rfiso'n. Onthe contrary in the final sound of the syllable 'ale9

always loses its consonantal sound, and, for this reason,

the preceding vowel must be heightened according to

§. 42, 2, e. g. NS7a mdqa from maga', iiaNSar; timgana

from tamga'na.

3. TOWELS.

§. 37. In the primitive Semitic there were only

the vowels a, i, u of which the long forms a, i, u

arose partly through the contraction of a + a, i -f- i,3*

36 2. VOWELS.

u -{- u after the elision of an intermediate y or v (§. 32'

partly through compensative lengthening (§. 32, 2

in the same way also lia'^j? qito'r from qittor and th

po'el, which has arisen from the pi"el, partly throng]

the lengthening of the tone-syllable in nominal''- forms

to which the participles and infinitiyes belong. Thes

lengthened forms always belong to the primitiTi

Semitic period, while the heightened forms first ow^

their origin to the peculiar development of the He

brew. All final consonants except in the imperative

the apocopated future, and the 3. fem. sing, of th

perfect, were followed by a vowel or, in the statu

ahs. of the masc. sing, and fem. sing, and plural, by :

vowel with a nasal. According to the Hebrew laws o

final sound all these short final vowels fall away, to

gether with the nasal of the status absolutus, while thi

long vowels remain. Comp. atj 'ap = Arabic ''abun o''abin according to §. 38 for 'aSm, but in the statu

constructus ^SN 'a^t = Arabic ''abi. A preceding v, yaccording to §. 32, 3, Rem., was elided'' even ii

old Semitic where it originally stood between vowels

This law of the final sound affords the reason why thipresent Hebrew final syllable is not treated as closed, amhence is not regarded as unchangeable. The few cases

' E. g. in the participle buip g^ottl = qdtil, of which thearlier form according to §. 2, Eem., was qatdl, like the perfectThat the nominal forms are frequently discriminated in prim

itive Semitic from the verbal forms through the lengthening

and in Hebrew through the heightening of the vowel of theitone-syllable, is occasioned by the stronger emphasis, which restm all languages upon the nominal forms.

"^ The n of the affix o'n also disappears in Hebrew propenames, comp. Jl^^N ^a^addo for 'd^addon, n'b'^'IB 'ilo' for silor.

but it returns when a second affix is added, comp. iS'^ilB Neh. xi, ISee §. 80.

DIVISIONS OF HEBEEW VOWELS. 37

in which an original short final vowel remains are to

be specified in the doctrine of forms. These final

vowels are protected through the joining on of suffixes,

and have retained their existence under the inexact

name of connecting vowel, Comp. "'Sba]? qetaldm, Arahicand original qatala-ni, DS'^iay 'a^de-Yem, Arabic and

original 'abdu-hum.

§. 38. Among the few vocal laws of the primitiveSemitic the following should be especially emphasized,

that a long vowel which was in an originally closed syl-

lable mmt be shortened. The short vowel which has thusarisen can remain in Hebrew according to §. 42 only

in unaccented syllables, while in accented syllables i,

u must be reheightened to e, o and only a can remain

short. Comp. dnp'^ yaqu'm = original ya-qu-mu, on theother hand dpji vay-ya^qom, original va-ya-qum, on

account of the accent reheightened to dp^ yu-qom =original ya-qum, after the same analogy i^a; yd'^tn =ya-bi-nu, "[an vay-yd-^en = va-ya-bin, ja;) yci^en = ya-bin, dp qdm = qd-ma = qa-va-ma, nu); qdmta forqdm-ta from qa-vam-ta, ntos 'asa'i == 'asat for 'asdt

from 'asavat.

§. 39. The Hebrew vowels are divided into 1) orig-

inally long, to which besides a, i, u belong o, which

has arisen partly from a , partly from a -f- "Oy a -f- u;

e from a -{- y, a -\- i and a likewise from a + y, comp.§. 33. They are externally recognizable since, with

the exception of d they are almost always indicated

through scriptio plena, with i or >. 2) Short vowel's:

a, i, u together with e from i, and o from u. 3) Height-

ened: a and a from a, "e from i, o from w. 4) Vola-

tilized: e from all the short vowels, d from a, e

from i, from u. The two last classes, which do

38 2. VOWELS.

not yet exist in the Arabic, haye always arisen from

the second.

§. 40. The original long vowels are unchangeable

in Hebrew, except the case in §. 38. However a is

very often obscured to 6, comp. ni'i dor = ddr = da-var, dipa naqd'm = naqdm = naqvam (§. 32, 2), pinama^o'q = mataq, btjip qdfel = qatil. The pure soundremains less often, as in w?^ qdm from qavama, anske'ia^ = kitdb, no sdr = savar. This 6 is sometimesdeepened to u through the removal of the accent, comp.Mjjnn?:? mS^uqa, ni73np3 nequmolsd. On the other handthrough a misunderstanding of the language, in the

case mentioned in §. 38, it is confounded with the o,

which has arisen from u, and it is shortened to u, orrelatively reheightened to o. Comp. inaris nehustan fromnahostan = nahds-t-an, heightened according to §. 42to niBns nehos(ey^ = nahus-t = nahos-t = nahds-t, like-wise iBibffl sdlos = salds, from which the fern, mibia selb-«C«)^ = salus-t, -riN 'e^ — 'i^ — 'ut = 'oi == 'a# = ""dyat= ''avay-at. On the contrary z and w remain almost en-tirely unchanged, except through §. 38. Comp. pi'iJtfaddiq, bia)5 qatu'l.

§. 41. The short vowels remain unchanged: 1) insharpened syllables, when the sharpening is not merelyeuphonic (§. 26, 5), comp. drjin'i'nN 'ad-di-re-Mm, onthe contrary li^jn Mz-za-yo'n, stat. constr. lirn he-ze-

yo'n. 2) Generally in all originally closed syllables

(therefore with the exception of the final syllables ac-cording to §. 37), e. g. d!^l^u^ab?5 mal-bu-se-hem. Ofcourse the immutability ceases, when the syllable inHebrew is no longer closed through the elision of an'Aleq) (§. 36) or the insertion of an auxiliary vowel e. g.nia ma-v(e)1s from ma/o-tun. 3) The syllabae dagessan-

QtTANTITY. 39

dae the sharpening of which cannot take place on

account of a guttural final sound, participate in the

immutability of the first class, e. g. bn^'na ie-mx,-

tem for bif^-rak-tvm, dns"]3 h'b-ra-f^Um, for h%vr-rak-tum,

^SIS'' (i3^i'^) y§-^-re-yJi,' for yu-bar-ri-ku-na. Comp.

§§;28. 297'

§. 42. In all other cases the short ro-wels are

subject to the folio-wing changes. Through heightening ^

a is changed to a or a, i to e, m to o 1) in an accented

closed syllable, and indeed always with i and u (comp.

153 ka^b = kabida, "ib]; 2"?^** = qatuna, "jipT ^a^em =zaqinum, bBjj'^. J/^'sfoZ = yaqtulu), with a for the most partonly in the pause and in the stat. abs., while this vowel

otherwise usually remains short. Comp. "la'i dd^ar = da-barun, but the stat. cstr. "lai de^ar = dabaru, further bnpqatdl = qatala, ^aD sabbu. Other short vowels in accentedclosed syllables are only the i in ds 'im and dN 'm,

as well as the e, which has arisen from i = u, inpronouns and suffixes of the 2. and 3. persons plural.^

2) Further the open tone syllable is heightened (Ex-

ceptions in §. 45), e. g. iriO^O susa from susat, y-iMn

Aa-'a-rCeJf, yns 'a-rCe)p from ''argun, nsi: se-(f(e)r from

sip-run., iBl'p g^-Sri)^ from qud-sun, Tby^_ yi-^-la from

' The heightening is merely a mechanical strengthening of

the vowel through an a, which is placed before it and which

finds its complete analogy in the Indo - Germanic Ghma andthe pronunciation of vowels in new high German and modemEnglish.

'^ Olshausen accepts for such forms, as dFiN 'attem, TilVZVi.

susehem etc. the heightened sound d (from a) and appeals to

the anomalous instances of vocalization in Ezechiel (§. 7);nevertheless his position is contradicted by the contraction of

ba-Mm to d3 bam, the forms hem, hen, the Samaritan pronunciationand the analogy of all the other Semitic languages.

40 2. VOWELS.

yagla[vu]. 3) The open syllable before the tone is

also mostly heightened (exceptions in §. 43), e. g. bW3

ma-sal from ma-sa-lun, aab le-^a^ from U-ba-bun,

bL5)5 qa-tdl from qa-ta-la, 4) but the second syllable

before the tone is very rarely heightened e. g. in 'Six

'a-no-fi', ibap^ qd-te-lu, and before the perfect with vav

consecutivum: FTp^tif] ve-a-mar-ta. Finally 5) height-

ening enters in the syllable after the tone, compare

Fibc:)5 qa-tdl-ta.

§. 43. On the contrary the short vowels are vol-atilized to half vowels (e, a, e, o): 1) in the second

syllable before the tone, as well as before those which

are at a greater remove from it (e. g. ibai? qe-ta-lo

from qatalahu, I'la'^ de-fid-ri' from dabari, d'^'iS'^ de-^a-

rivi, d'^b^rj: qe-tu-li'm, din'^b^ajj qe-tu-le-hem); 2) in somecases also in the fore-tone syllable, namely a) through-out in the status constructtis , e. g. 'laif de-^dr, •^qi ye-me ,nKy 'a-ga^, niaio se-mo'% because the first member ofthe status constructus only possesses a secondary accent,

b) in some nominal forms especially with i or u (ingeneral i is often, u almost always volatilized in anopen fore-tone syllable), e. g. d-'bpip qd-te-lim fromqdtiltm, isn hagi from higyum, ^bn ho-li from hulyvm,,ins ''a-ri' from ''aryun; c) in ,the verbal forms iilsap^qd-te-la, ib^jj^ qd-te-lu, ^hiyj}") yiq-te-lu', d) before the

suffixes ka, kem, ken, comp. irjpiD su-se-fja, dSDiDsu-se-y^em.

§. 44. Since two half vowels are not allowed tofollow each other in Hebrew, the syllable before thevolatilized vowel can retain its short vowel e. g. bs3abi-ne-tsjiol , •^ns'i di-^e-re, drjins'i di-^e-re-hem, nisna bi-

'«-X.o'^- It is heightened only in the forms inbap^ qd-

POSITION OP SHORT VOWELS. 41

te-la, sibU)? qa-te-lu and mostly before tte suffix e-^d,

e. g. ^'^^2•^ d^-^a-re-YJa, yet also ^mi Si-me-yia.

§. 45. Moreover short vovfels occur in open syl-

lables only 1) in the suffix d-ni, e. g. '^sbajj qe-ta-

la-ni; 2) before the old accusative ending a, e. g. manjamih-ha-ra, in which cases accented a remains in an

open syllable; 3) with monosyllabic nominal stems of

mediae gutturalis or y68, which on account of §. 52have taken an auxiliary vowel, because this auxiliary

sound is not yet regarded as a full vowel which can

form a syllable. Comp. bns nah(a)l, rrja hdy(i)'i, such

feminines also as nyniii i6md'(o)'i from sama't follow

the same analogy. Unheightened forms as 'ja'^ yi^(e)n,

^1? y^K^)^ stand in the apocopated future together

with heightened forms, as bil yd-^(e)l, a^;; yer(e}^ from

yabnfaj, yagl[a], yarb[a]. On the contrary the shortvowel always remains 4) when the following half vow-

elled auxiliary sound has only been inserted to facil-

itate the pronunciation of a guttural, according to §. 55,

even if this, according to §. 56, becomes a full vowel,

because these auxiliary sounds originated too late, to

affect the laws of the vowel sound. Comp. iby^_ ya'(d)-

moh from ya'mudu, pm;^ yeh(e)-zdq from yahzaqu, 'riby\

y

42 2. VOWELS.

§. 46. Independently of the exceptions given in

§. 44 and 45 short vowels can only stand in unaccented

closed syllables. Only a can remain short in all closedsyllables. (§. 42). If the short vowel retains its char-

acter, M (except in a sharpened syllable) is almost

always modified to o, i frequently to e. Comp. ajjjj

vay-ya-qom (va-ya-qum).,

vay-ya-^en (va-ya-bin)^ "'"'^Tp,

qoh-si (qudsi), iltsn Aecp-pt (hip-gi\, iry 'uz-zo, iisD

sit^-ro'. The vowel a very frequently becomes i especially

in a sharpened syllable and in the case of §. 44: baj;

qitfel, Arabic qattala, ina bit-ti' from na 6a^, I'lS'i di-

^e-re from dabaray.

§. 47. The following vowel scheme is derived from

the foregoing rules: 1) a remains unchanged in an orig-

inally closed syllable, 2) becomes i a) before the sharp-

ening (§. 46), b) in open syllables before half vowels

(§. 44 and 46) and in all other cases *; 3) it is volatilized

in the second open syllable before the tone, and inthe pretonic syllable of the status constructus; 4) it is

heightened a) to a in the closed tone -syllable of the

status absolutus and in the open pretonic syllable, b) toa in the monosyllabic nominal forms of the tertiae v, yand in the future and participle of the stems of the sameclass of verbs. — The vowel a, more seldom retains itssound, since it generally becomes 6, which according to

§. 40 can pass over into m and u (o).

' The above-mentioned i shares the same fate as the orig-inal i, e. g. liJaflJ yehbds = yihbas = yahbas, SSn"! 2/e-8e-xem,IBiai ye-^6's = yi-bos according to §. 42, 3, = ya-bds = yahva'saccording to §. 32, 2. The remarkable transition of i, whichhas arisen from o, to I in the hi'tpil has perhaps originatedaccording to an erroneous analogy from the conjugation of theverbs mediae v, y where this t is phonetically legitimate.

NO EEAL DIPHTHONOS IN HEBREW. 4S

§. 48. The vowel i, a) almost always remains un-changed in a closed, unaccented syllable (§. 46); b) if no

sharpening follows, it often becomes e. c) It undergoesvolatilization in an open unaccented syllable, notunfrequently also before the tone (§. 43). d) It is

heightened to e in the tone -syllable and often in theopen pretonic syllable (§. 42). — i always remainsunchanged, in such forms except as di»)?3 n§qiyyi'm =naqiyim, where it becomes iy.

§. 49. The vowel m, a) scarcely ever remains un-changed except in a sharpened syllable (§. 41), b) almostalways becomes o in a toneless closed syllable (§. 45fin.) ; c) becomes volatilized in an open unaccented syl-lable (§. 43), and d) is heightened to o in an accented

(§. 42). Sometimes it passes over into i («, e), thus

in the imperative ibpjj qitelu' = Arabic qutlu (thehalf vowel has penetrated the Hebrewj word through

the false analogy of the singular form), -nsj 'e^, dnx

''attem, comp. §. 42, Kemark 2. — u always remainsunchanged.

§. 50. There are no real diphthongs in Hebrew.

Original ay, av reject their consonants before a follow-

ing vowel (§. 32), but if no vowel follows they are

each contracted to e and 6 through vocalization (-nia

M'i = bayt, "iDio suae = susay , a^a'^n Mti'^ = hayti^,riba gulU'lsa = gullayta, -nin mSl^ = mavt, ibii noldh= navlad, T>bin holih = havUb). The mixed vowel eis in several forms thinned to i (ri'^ba gali"ia from ga-

layta) and appears sometimes to change its place with

a (^rM-hi geldna, rtS'^bsn ti-^ldna = taglayna, comp. §. 33).The combination a -\- i always becomes e, a -\r u o {pi2

me^ = mavita, Tliia bos = havusa, ib 16 = lahu). —The combinations ay, av seldom remain (e. g. "'FinbTa

44 2. VOWELS.

saldvti, iTO sadddy, which is heightened ia the pause

i^iB aadday, likewise ijy 'anav). It remains for the most

part before original doubling (§. 34, 3) and in the

status absolutm of monosyllabic nouns, where ay,

av through the adoption of an auxiliary vowel be-

come dy(i), av(e). Compare rr^a hdy(i)'i = hayt^ rr\)2mav(e)'i = mavt.

§• 51. The above may be represented in the fol-lowing table of vowels:

I+I A+A V+V

I ay, e, (i, a) A (av)^ av, 6

e, e, a

The Latin uncial letters are chosen for the original

Semitic in order to include y, v. The brackets in-dicate less common transitions of sound.

§. 52. Since a biconsonantal ending is only al-

lowed in the few vowel combinations mentioned in §. 30;it is frequently necessary in Hebrew that after the

OUTTUEALS. 45

falling away of the old final vowels (§. 37) an auxiliary

vowel should enter between the two new final conson-ants, and indeed most commonly an e with the height-ening of the preceding vowel according to §. 42, 2,wherehy a (except in the stems mediae v and in thepause) does not become heightened to a, but to a.

Comp. nia m««('ej^ from mavtun, yn^ ^ar(e)g from''argun, 'iso se(f(e)r from siprun, 6'j'p qcih(ejs from qud-

sun, nlsuip qdtdl(e)'^ from qatal-tun, bsjj vay-ydy(e)l

from vayagl[a], •2'^^^ vay-yer(e)^ from vayirbfa], by theside of the unheightened form ^y^ v(vy-yvr(e)^, comp.§. 45. In the stems mediae y, i is adopted as anauxiliary vowel without heightening, e. g. nn zay(i)'ifrom zaytwn. In the stems mediae and tertiae gutturalis

a becomes the auxiliary, before which in the mediae

gutturalis (as well as in general when the last con-sonant but one is a guttural) a is not heightened, comp.

s^nj zar(a)' = zar'un, bw nah(a)l = nahlun, nSS mg(a)h= nifhtm, byb po'(a)l = pySlvn^ rif]']^ ior&h^ay^ =:harahtun. If the last of the consonants in the final

sound is an 2/ or a w it is vocalized and the pre-

ceding vowel, when standing before .final y, is volat-ilized, but before v it is heightened, when the wordis a noun, comp. ins pen from paryun, i^i yehi'from yihy[a], inn tohu from tuhvun, iifiniB'^i wayyi&tahu

from vayyistahv[a]

.

§. 53. The gutturals readily adopt an a instead

of the other short vowels in every case (especially before

them, where this vowel was originally in use at least

as a collateral form). E. g. ibn;: yahmob, nbffi'^ yisldh,

n|ia silidh (nevertheless Wzm^.''mMalle(a)h), pyr yiz'dq,

finnb la -Mom. Yet not only the vowel a occurs, but

also the vowel e, which has arisen through phonetic

46 2. VOWELS.

retrogression from i, especially for the sake of ren-

dering tlie first vowel unlike the one immediately fol-

lowing, provided it is or originally was a, e. g. ffianj

yehbaa from yihbaS, yahBas, !^!rr!'^ yeh(e_)zd from yihzay,

yahzay. Pa^ah furtive is inserted between a long, or

even in some cases a heightened vowel, and final h ' h

e. g. mi ru(a)'h^ yii; yabu(ay, aibs ''"el6(a)h. — Thehalf guttural r does not have so strong a preference for

a, yet e. g. i!«"i^] vayyar* occurs together with MN"i'; yir'd

anc^ even the fut. apocop. hia^'il "iDjl vayyasar together

with veyaser, shortened from ti£3;J yasir. — The stemstertiae v, y and a part of the stems primae n, primae v,

y and tertiae ^dle(f manifest a decided preference for the

forms with a.

§. 54. A half vowel under the gutturals (exceptr) always becomes sevd compositum so that if the

original vowel was a, it is changed to a, if i, to S,

if M, to 0. Comp. ''IN ^ari from ary, nibis ''el6'(a)h

from 'ild/h, 'bn holi' from huly, Vitm sahatu from sa-hafuna. If the half vowel was first inserted in Hebrewas an auxiliary sound to facilitate the pronunciation

(as is the case in the tran