and serve to express states and qualities, e.g. כָּבֵד to be heavy, קָטֹן to be small.
In Paradigm B a verb middle a, a verb middle ē, and a verb middle ō are accordingly given side by side. The second example כָּבֵד is chosen as showing, at the same time, when the Dageš lene is to be inserted or omitted.
[b] Rem. 1. The vowel of the second syllable is the principal vowel, and hence on it depends the distinction between the transitive and intransitive meaning. The Qameṣ of the first syllable is lengthened from an original ă (cf. Arabic qătălă), but it can be retained in Hebrew only immediately before the tone, or at the most (with an open ultima) in the counter-tone with Metheg; otherwise, like all the pretonic vowels (ā, ē), it becomes Šewâ, e.g. קְטַלְתֶּ֫ם 2nd plur. masc. In the Aramaic dialects the vowel of the first syllable is always reduced to Šewâ, as קְטַל=Hebr. קָטַל. The intransitive forms in Arabic are qătĭlă, qătŭlă; in Hebrew (after the rejection of the final vowel) ĭ being in the tone-syllable has been regularly lengthened to ē, and ŭ to ō.
[c] 2. Examples of denominatives in Qal are: חָמַר to cover with pitch, from חֵמָר pitch ; מָלַח to salt, from מֶ֫לַח salt; שָׁבַר (usually Hiph.) to buy or sell corn, from שֶׁ֫בֶר corn; see above, § 38 c.
[a] 1. The formation of the persons of the Perfect is effected by the addition of certain forms of the personal pronoun, and marks of the 3rd fem. sing. and 3rd pl. (as afformatives) to the end of the verbal-stem, which contains the idea of a predicate, and may be regarded, in meaning if not in form, as a Participle or verbal adjective. For the 3rd pers. sing. masc. Perfect, the pronominal or subject idea inherent in the finite verb is sufficient: thus, קָטַל he has killed, קָטַ֫לְ־תָּ thou hast killed (as it were, killing thou, or a killer thou), a killer wast thou=קטל אַתָּה; יָרֵא he was fearing, ירֵא־תֶם ye were fearing=יִרא אַתֶּם. The ending of the 1st pers. plur. (־נוּ) is also certainly connected with the termination of אֲנַ֫חְנוּ, אנו we (§ 32 b, d). The afformative of the 1st pers. sing. (תִּי) is to be referred, by an interchange of כ and ת (cf. § 33 f), to that form of the pronoun which also underlies אָֽנֹכִי, I.[2] In the third person ־ָה (originally ־ַת, cf. below, f) is the mark of the feminine, as in a great number of nouns (§ 80 c), and וּ is the termination of the plural; cf., for the latter, the termination of the 3rd and 2nd pers. plur. Imperf. ûna in Arabic and û (often also וּן)
- ↑ Cf. Nöldeke, ‘Die Endungen des Perfects’ (Untersuchungen zur semit. Gramm. ii.), in ZDMG. vol. 38, p. 407 ff., and more fully in Beiträge zur sem. Sprachwiss., Strassb. 1904, p. 15 ff.
- ↑ According to Nöldeke, l.c., p. 419, the original Semitic termination of the 1st sing. Perf. was most probably kû; cf. the Ethiopic qatalku, Arabic qataltu.
