Pengguna:Dubaduba/WP/Sewa

5. ŠEWA When, in a pointed text, there is a vowelless letter at the beginning or in the middle of a word, then the sign .—called

šewa (N$) fills the gap under it. Thus, instead of writing T3, iOP1?, one writes "Ţ3, ÎD2?1?. ăewa is of two kinds: (a) SIMPLE and (4) COMPOSITE. (a) SIMPLE SEWA. (i) The shewa* in ÍQ# (šemô) and D^Ttf (šô-merím) begins the syllable with a quick vowel-like sound.b This is vocal shewa. The shewa in "lb|2T (yiš-môr) and Tj?|9X fap-qîd) closes the syllable and is silent. This is silent shewa. Hence we see that shewa is vocal when it begins a syllable—at the beginning or middle of a word, and silent when it ends {or closes) a syllable— in the middle of a word.c (iij It will also be observed from the above examples that when shewa occurs in the middle of a word then, after a long vowel it is vocal (as WltyW šô-merim) and after a short vowel it is silent (as "IQH??? yiš-môr).d (iii) When two shewas occur together in the middle of a word as in ľlt>|l?T (yiš-merú), the first shewa closes the one syllable and is therefore silent, while the second begins the next syllable and is therefore vocal. Similarly $$$ (iv) We shall see later (p. 15) that a dot (called Dagheš Forte) placed in a letter shows that that letter is doubled, so that a word like T?$p. is really the same as V?t?Pj2 (qiţ-ţ'lu); this, then, is a condensed form of the preceding case. Thus, a shewa under a letter which is doubled (and has a Dagheš Forte in it) is vocal.

(i) COMPOSITE SHEWA. The guttural letters (ynľlK) exhibit many peculiarities (pp. 19 f.). One is that when a guttural stands vowelless at the beginning of a syllable, the shewa-sôund is practically a half-vowel. There are three such half-vowels called Hăţeph'-vowels (^pn 'hurried'): _. Haţeph-

Pathah [*], v: Haţeph-Seghol [*], T! Haţeph-Qameş [•]. The composite representation by shewa and short vowel together gave rise to the term COMPOSITE SHEWA, and the ordinary shewa, in contradistinction, is called Simple Shewa. To illustrate how a composite shewa appears under a guttural instead of a simple vocal shewa, we may take an ordinary verb like *13^ (šabar—'he broke') the imperative of which is "D$ (š'bôr—'break'), but of a corresponding verb whose first letter is a guttural like H3^ ('3bar—'he passed') the imperative is ""DŞ7 ('"bór1"—'pass') with composite shewa under the guttural (instead of "13Ş7 ,ebôr). Similarly the plural of 1VP (yäšär— 'upright') is D'Httr (y'šärím), but the plural of a corresponding adjective whose first letter is a guttural, such as WDU (hăkăm— 'wise'), is Q'TpDO (h*kämím: instead of O^DD hTţămîm). NOTE: A syllable cannot begin with two vowelless letters, i.e. with two vocal shewas. If, however, conditions are such that a letter with a vocal shewa be placed immediately before another letter with vocal shewa, then the first vocal shewa becomes the nearest short vowel (in sound), namely short Hireq (.). For example, the preposition 'to' is a prefixed (vowelless) 7. s0 tnat when it is prefixed to the word 7ţjflfa$ (š'mu'čl—'Samuel') the combination ^ţOftţŢ1? (lTmu'el) cannot be articulated, and the first vocal shewa becomes the short vowel Hireq ^^QZ?1? (Iišemů5l—'to Samuel'). The second shewa remains vocal, as it was before the preposition was attached. (An exception to this will be found later, p. 80, footnote b.) When a simple vocal shewa is placed immediately before a composite shewa it becomes, under the influence of the latter, the corresponding short vowel, e.g. 'To Edom' is (not DÍ"7}<7 but) QVIŞŞ'? (cf. p. 27. 4, p. 41. 4).

SUMMARY : Shewa fills the empty space under a vowelless letter. It Í3 of two kinds: (a) Simple and (6) Composite. (a) i. Simple shewa (.) is vocal when it begins a syllable (at the beginning or middle of a word) and silent when it closes a syllable (in the middle of a word), ii. After a long vowel it is vocal: after a short silent, iii. When two shewas occur together in the middle of a word, the first is silent and the second vocal, iv. Shewa under a letter doubled by a dot (Dagheš Forte, pp. 15-16) is vocal. (b) Composite shewa _ replaces vocal shewa simple under the guttural letters (3Jnî"lN). NOTE : When two simple shewas occur together at the begin ning of a word, the first becomes the short vowel . ^ Hireq (.); before a composite shewa the simple ^^ Jt ^^ ' vocal shewa becomes the corresponding short vowel.