to regard them as representing the original stem (with two radicals), and the forms with the second radical repeated as subsequently developed from the monosyllabic stem.[1] The appearance of a general contraction of triliteral stems is due to the fact that in biliteral forms the second radical regularly receives Dageš forte before afformatives, except in the cases noted in § 22 b and q. This points, however, not to an actual doubling, but merely to a strengthening of the consonant, giving more body to the monosyllabic stem, and making it approximate more to the character of triliteral forms.
The development of biliteral to triliteral stems (ע״ע) generally takes place in the 3rd sing. masc. and fem. and 3rd plur. perfect Qal of transitive verbs, or at any rate of verbs expressing an activity, e.g. סָבַב, סָֽבְבָה, סָֽבְבוּ: חָנַן Gn 33 (but with suffix חַנַּ֫נִי, ver. 11); sometimes with an evident distinction between transitive and intransitive forms, as צָרַר to make strait, צַר to be in a strait; see further details, including the exceptions, in aa. The development of the stem takes place (a) necessarily whenever the strengthening of the 2nd radical is required by the character of the form (e.g. חִלֵּל, שֻׁדֵּד), and (b) as a rule, whenever the 2nd radical is followed or preceded by an essentially long vowel, as, in Qal, סָבוֹב, סָבוּב, in Pôʿl and Pôʿal, סוֹבֵב, סוֹבַב.
[b] 2. The biliteral stem always (except in Hiphʿîl and the imperfect Niphʿal, see below) takes the vowel which would have been required between the second and third radical of the ordinary strong form, or which stood in the ground-form, since that vowel is characteristic of the form (§ 43 b), e.g. תַּם answering to קָטַל, תַּ֫מָּה to the ground-form qăṭălăt, תַּ֫מּוּ to the ground-form qăṭălû; infinitive, סֹב to קְטֹל.
[c] 3. The insertion of Dageš forte (mentioned under a), for the purpose of strengthening the second radical, never takes place (see § 20 l) in the final consonant of the word, e.g. תַּם, סֹב, not תַּםּ, סֹבּ; but it appears again on the addition of afformatives or suffixes, e.g. תַּמּ֫וּ, סֹ֫בּוּ, סַבּ֫וּנִי, &c.
[d] 4. When the afformative begins with a consonant (נ, ת), and hence the strongly pronounced second radical would properly come at the end of a closed syllable, a separating vowel is inserted between the stem-syllable and the afformative. In the perfect this vowel is וֹ, in the imperative and imperfect ־ֶי, e.g. סַבּ֫וֹתָ, סַבּ֫וֹנוּ, imperfect תְּסֻבֶּ֫ינָה (for sabb-tā, sabb-nû, tasōbb-nā). The artificial opening of the syllable
- ↑ So (partly following Ewald and Böttcher) A. Müller, ZDMG. xxxiii. p. 698 ff.; Stade, Lehrbuch, § 385 b, c; Nöldeke, and more recently Wellhausen, ‘Ueber einige Arten schwacher Verba im Hebr.’ (Skizzen u. Vorarb. vi. 250 ff.). Against Böttcher see M. Lambert, REJ. xxxv. 330 ff., and Brockelmann, as above.
