of the vowel, and that the prehistoric malakai became malakhai before being shortened to malkhē’. In cases like כִּסְאוֹ (from כִּסֵּא), יִקְחוּ (from יִקַּח) the dropping of the Dageš forte shows that the original vowel is completely lost.
[e] The sound ĕ has been adopted as the normal transcription of simple Šewâ mobile, although it is certain that it often became assimilated in sound to other vowels. The LXX express it by ε, or even by η, כְּרוּבִים χερουβίμ, הַלְלוּ־יָהּ ἀλληλούια, more frequently by α, שְׁמוּאֵל, Σαμουήλ, but very frequently by assimilating its indeterminate sound to the following principal vowel, e.g. סְדֹם Σόδομα, שְׁלֹמֹה Σολομών (as well as Σαλωμών), צְבָאוֹת Σαβαώθ, נְתַנְאֵל Ναθαναήλ.[1] A similar account of the pronunciation of Šewâ is given by Jewish grammarians of the Middle Ages.[2]
How the Šewâ sound has arisen through the vanishing of a full vowel is seen, e.g. in בְּרָכָה from bărăkă, as the word is still pronounced in Arabic. In that language the full short vowel regularly corresponds to the Hebrew Šewâ mobile.
[f] 2. Connected with the simple Šewâ môbile is the compound Šewâ or Ḥâṭēph (correptum), i.e. a Šewâ the pronunciation of which is more accurately fixed by the addition of a short vowel. There are three Šewâ-sounds determined in this way, corresponding to the three vowel classes (§ 7 a):—
( ־ֲ) Ḥâṭēph-Páthăḥ, e.g. חֲמוֹר ḥamôr, ass.
( ־ֱ) Ḥâṭēph-Segôl, e.g. אֱמֹר ʾemōr, to say.
( ־ֳ) Ḥâṭēph-Qāmĕṣ, e.g. חֳלִי, ḥolî, sickness.
These Ḥâṭēphs, or at least the first two, stand especially under the four guttural letters (§ 22 l), instead of a simple Šewâ mobile, since these letters by their nature require a more definite vowel than the indeterminate simple Šewâ mobile. Accordingly a guttural at the beginning of a syllable, where the Šewâ is necessarily vocal, can never have a mere Šewâ simplex.
On ־ֲ the shorter Ḥaṭef as compared with ־ֱ cf. § 27 v.
[g] Rem. A. Only ־ֲ and ־ֳ occur under letters which are not gutturals. Ḥaṭeph-Pathaḥ is found instead of simple Šewâ (especially Šewâ mobile), chiefly (a) under strengthened consonants, since this strengthening (commonly called doubling) causes a more distinct pronunciation of the Šewâ mobile, שִׁבֲּלֵי branches, Zc 4. According to the rule given by Ben-Asher (which, however, appears to be unknown to good early MSS. and is therefore rejected by Ginsburg, Introd., p. 466; cf. Foote, Johns Hopkins Univ. Circulars, June 1903,
- ↑ The same occurs frequently also in the Greek and Latin transcriptions of Phoenician words, e.g. מְלָכָא Malaga, גְּבוּלִים gubulim (Schröder, Die phöniz. Spr., p. 139 ff.). Cf. the Latin augment in momordi, pupugi, with the Greek in τέτυφα, τετυμμένος, and the old form memordi.
- ↑ See especially Yehuda Ḥayyûǵ, pp. 4 f. and 130 f. in Nutt’s edition (Lond. 1870), corresponding to p. 200 of the edition by Dukes (Stuttg. 1844); Ibn Ezra’s Ṣaḥoth, p. 3; Gesenius, Lehrgebäude der hebr. Sprache, p. 68. The Manuel du lecteur, mentioned above, § 6 b, also contains express rules for the various ways of pronouncing Šewâ mobile: so too the Dikduke ha-ṭeeamim, ed. by Baer and Strack, Lpz. 1879, p. 12 ff. Cf. also Schreiner, ZAW. vi. 236 ff.
