Rules to Remember

Page 1

Lesson 3

1. Masculine singular (ms) nouns have no special endings.

2. Feminine singular (fs) nouns have either -aah or -t endings.

3. Masculine plural (mp) nouns are normally marked by the ending -i(y)m.

4. Feminine plural (fp) nouns are normally marked by the ending -oot. The oot eending takes the place of the fs ending.

5. The dual (md; fd) is marked by the ending -ayim.

6. The dual is restricted to the following.

a) Nouns that come in natural pairs.

b) Certain expressions of time.

c) Measures of two.

7. Some singular nouns may be used collectively. (bird, birds)

8. A few nouns may be plural in form but have singular meanings. (god, gods)

9. The addition of an ending and the resultant shift of the stress from the old ultima to the new one, may cause certain vowels to be reducted to a shewa.

a) In the propretonic open syllable, aa or ee reduces to shewa.

b) If there is no reduction in the propretonic syllabe, ee (not aa) in a pretonic syllable is reduced to shewa.

10. ayi contracts to ee when there is an addition of an ending and the resultant shift of the stress from the old ultima to the new one.

11. aawe contracts to oo when there is an addition of an ending and the resultant shift of the stress from the old ultima to the new one.

12. Nouns with Final -eh is removed before the mp, fs, or fp ending.

Lesson 4

1. The common consonants (radicals) in all the forms of a word are called the root of the word.

2. The model root is qtl where q is the first radical, t the second, and l the third.

3. Root types: I-nun, I-alef, II-waw, II-yod, III-hey III-alef, germinate (second and third radicals are alike)

4. Weak radicals are more susceptible to change than strong radicals like the model root radicals.

5. Gutturals cannot be doubled by the dagesh when a word pattern calls for it. Instead it does one of the following two things.

a) Compensatory lengthening of the vowel immediately preceding the guttural. (a becomes aa, i become ee, u becomes oo)

b) Virtual doubling of the guttural. In this case, there is no marker of doubling, one simply has to know that doubling is expected.

6. Gutturals prefer a-class vowels

7. A nun standing immediately before another consonant will be assimilated in to the following radical.??

8. With very few exceptions, waw cannot stand at the beginning of a word, therefore, original I-waw roots are listed as I-yod.

9. When the waw of a root is in a non-initial position, it normally remains unchanged.

10. The original diphthong aw becomes aawe when stressed.

11. The original diphthong aw becomes oo when unstressed.

12. The diphthong ay becomes ayi when stressed.

13. The diphthong ay becomes ee when unstressed.

14. In some instances where waw or yod is the second radical, they may appear as a mater.

15. II-waw roots have