On the Rudiments of Hebrew

BOOK

...of which some are vowels and some are consonants. They call those things vowels which are suited to be brought forth from the depths of the lungs by the opening of the mouth alone, relying chiefly on the support of the soul. Vowels are said to be more suitable for expressing the voice because they use no external instrument except for the variety of the breath, such as the letters original: "אותיות" (otiyot). However, the letters He and Het have their home in the chest. Ayin is in the throat. Aleph and Yod are in the hollow of the mouth. Vav is in the open mouth. From these, two types of breath emerge: a smooth breathing like He and a strong breathing like Het, just as among the Greeks there is the rough breathing original: "Dasia" and the smooth breathing original: "psile". Certain diphthongs diphthong: two vowel sounds joined in one syllable also arise. For Aleph and Vav, and similarly Ayin and Vav, make the sound of o or u. Aleph and Yod signify the sounds i or e. Vav at the end of a word without the vowel points cholam or shureq signifies the Aeolic digamma The digamma is an archaic Greek letter that sounded like a "w" or "v". and makes the diphthong af or ef, just like the Greek au and eu. Similarly, Yod at the end of a word when not pointed with a vowel makes a diphthong by mixing the sound i with the preceding vowel point, as will be shown more extensively below. And just as among the Latins the letters i and u are sometimes vowels and sometimes consonants, so it is with Vav and Yod in the Hebrew language. They are consonants when they use the service of the palate and the lips. They are vowels when they are expressed by the opening of the mouth alone. When they are counted as consonants, they are taken either for a single consonant or for a double consonant, entirely according to the teaching of Priscian of Caesarea in the first book of his Art of Grammar. Consonants are letters which, when joined to voices, require the assistance of physical instruments in pronunciation. These instruments are the lips, the tongue, the teeth, and the palate.

Of the consonants, some are "two-formed" and others are "one-formed." Those are called "two-formed" which possess two different shapes under one name, and they are five in number: Kaph, Mem, Nun, Pe, and Tzadi. Their primary shapes, which we see placed in the order of the alphabet, are these: כ מ נ פ צ. These should be placed only at the beginning or in the middle of words, and never at the end. The terminal shapes These are often called "sofit" or final letters in modern Hebrew grammar. are these: ך ם ן ף ץ. These are found placed only at the end of words, with the exception of only one verse in the ninth chapter of Isaiah: "His empire shall be multiplied" In Isaiah 9:7, the word le-marbeh (to the increase) begins with a "final" or closed Mem (ם), which usually only appears at the end of a word. Reuchlin suggests this has a mystical meaning beyond grammar., where a terminal Mem begins a word. This mystery requires a deeper investigation than what concerns a grammarian. All the rest of the letters are "one-formed," because they are written everywhere with only one type of character. There is also another division of the twenty-two letters. Eleven of them are "substantial" only, and the remaining eleven are both "substantial" and "accidental" accidental: letters that can be added to a root word to change its grammatical function, such as forming a plural or a tense at the same time. Substantial letters are those which only pri...