GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION;

IN WHICH ARE DEVELOPED THE REGULAR INFLECTIONS OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE.

THE Hebrew Alphabet consists of twenty-two letters, which are all consonants, whose name and form, and power, according to our mode of indicating it, are as follows:

The vowels are expressed by certain marks, placed, generally, below the letters, and are fourteen in number; as,

Qāmētz and qāmētz-'haraph are distinguished from each other by the latter being followed by a simple or compound shewāa, or by a consonant in the same syllable, except a or h at the end of a word; as

‘Hōlem, as shewn above, is sometimes simply indicated by a dot; and when preceded by , or followed by, its place is supplied by the dot on those letters: as, loa, sōnēa,

mōsheh.

* The & is merely employed to shew the position of the vowels.

We have indicated the presence of the by an Italic w, which, as well as every other Italic letter, must be regarded as quiescent.

Long 'hiriq (i) is distinguished from short 'hīriq (i) by a yūd ▾ following it: but 'hīriq without a in the last syllable having an accent, or in the middle of a word not followed by a shěwaa or dagesh, must be considered as long; as in shíth, 7? qĕrivū.

.hi-ne-ni הִנְנִי til-me-da תִּלְמְדוּ nish-math נִשְׁמַת

Shewaa is merely syllabic, and not pronounced, when preceded by a short unaccented vowel, except another shewaa or when followed by the same letter as that under which it is placed; as, Shewaa is not expressed under the last letter of a word, except it be, or when immediately preceded by another shewaa; as, 7 dā-vār, me'-le'k, ♫ gasht.

The three shortest vowels are termed in general compound shewāas being formed of that vowel and (+) (-) and (..), and only used for it, generally, under the gutturals yx.

The following diphthongs are formed by a union of with the Vowels :

A dot in a letter is termed dagesh, which is either single or double. Single dagesh is only inscribed in the letters 22, beginning a word or syllable, and causes the letter in which it. stands to lose its aspiration, as shewn in the alphabet. The double dagesh may be found in any letter except the gutturals and, and doubles the letter in which it is inscribed, which we have indicated by the apostrophe ('); as, li'mēd.

A dot in a at the end of a word, is termed ma'piq, and strengthens its sound, which we have denoted by hh; as, rib aělōwahh, gāvahh.

Ma'qaph is a small stroke like a hyphen, and used for the same purpose, which we have expressed by two dots: as, "p-by oal.. pěnči. The hyphen we have employed in the text to separate the article and prepositions from the word, and to connect words which we have rendered by one; and in the translation, to unite the several words by which one original word is translated; as, bě-rēashīth, “in-the-beginning;"

"fif-teen."

yn hamesh-oesrēh,

Every syllable begins with a consonant, except at the beginning of a word, and patha'h at the end under and, and y when pronounced; as, 7 bā-rāa, 171 ū-rě-vū, miby aě-lōw-ahh, In rũ-ah, 29 rũ-ao.

The syllable which is the seat of an accent, except the euphonic metheg, (,) is acute, or emphatic. When the same accent occurs twice in a word, the first is acute; and when various accents occur in the same word, the last is acute; as, ha'-ma'yim,

ii ū-le-mōwoǎdīm'. It has been thought unnecessary to mark the accent when the quantity sufficiently determined the pronunciation of a word, a long vowel having the preference of emphasis over a short, and a short vowel over the very short; as, in kothnōwth, ip? le-qōwl, tatzmīa'h.

The example in the following page will convey an accurate idea of the mode of notation in Roman Characters adopted in this work.