§ 25. Unchangeable Vowels.
What vowels in Hebrew are unchangeable, i.e. are not liable to attenuation (to SèewaÖ), modification, lengthening, or shortening, can be known with certainty only from the nature of the grammatical forms, and in some cases by comparison with Arabic (cf. § 1 m). This holds good especially of the essentially long vowels, i.e. those long by nature or contraction, as distinguished from those which are only lengthened rhythmically, i.e. on account of the special laws which in Hebrew regulate the tone and the formation of syllables. The latter, when a change takes place in the position of the tone or in the division of syllables, readily become short again, or are reduced to a mere vocal SèewaÖ.
1. The essentially long and consequently, as a rule (but cf. § 26 p, § 27 n, o), unchangeable vowels of the second and third class, iÖ, eÖ, uÖ, oÖ, can often be recognized by means of the vowel letters which accompany them ¿ y¤ià y¤e à Wà A À; e.g. byjiyyE he does well, lk'yhe palace, lWbG> boundary, lAq voice. The defective writing (§ 8 i) is indeed common enough, e.g. bjiyyE and byjiyE for byjiyyE È lbuG> for lWbG> È lqo for lAq, but this is merely an orthographic licence and has no influence on the quantity of the vowel; the uÖ in lbuG> is just as necessarily long, as in lWbG>.
As an exception, a merely tone-long vowel of both these classes is sometimes written fully, e.g. lAjq.yI for ljoq.yI.
2. The essentially or naturally long aÖ (QamesÌ impure),1 unless it has become oÖ (cf. § 9 q), has as a rule in Hebrew no representative among the consonants, while in Arabic it is regularly indicated by a; on the few instances of this kind in Hebrew, cf. § 9 b, § 23 g. The naturally long aÖ and the merely tone-long aÒ therefore can only be distinguished by an accurate knowledge of the forms.
3. Short vowels in closed syllables (§ 26 b), which are not final, are as a rule unchangeable, e.g. vWBl.m; garment, rB'r>mi wilderness, hk'l'm.m; kingdom; similarly, short, vowels in sharpened syllabes, i.e. before Dagesë forte, e.g. bN"G: thief.
4. Finally, those long vowels are unchangeable which, owing to the omission of the strengthening in a guttural or r, have arisen by lengthening from the corresponding short vowels, and now stand in an open syllable, e.g. !aeme formiç”eÒn; %r;Bo for burrakh.
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