On the Orthography of Hebrew Words. 89 



VIII. The short vowels, except when followed by a quiescent, may 

 be marked with Q ; when followed by a quiescent, with a curved 

 circumflex (~). 



IX. The half vowels may be written in a smaller character and 

 above the line. This method has been adopted by Gesenius and 

 Stuart. 



X. The tonic accent, when on the ultimate syllable, may be omit- 

 ted ; when on the penult, it may be expressed by (') written immedi- 

 ately after the accented syllable. 



XI. The euphonic accent maybe expressed by('). 



XII. Makkeph may be expressed by two parallel lines ( = ). 



XIII. SiWuk may be expressed by a period (.) ; the other pause 

 accents by a colon (:); disjunctives of the second class by a semico- 

 lon (;) ; and disjunctives of the third class by a comma (,). Con- 

 junctives need not be expressed.*" 



Remarks on the several letters and vowel points. 



Aaleph. 



N, according to the Masoretic punctuation, is either moveable, qui- 

 escent, or otiant.' 



The force of N moveable, consisted, like the spiritus lenis (') of the 

 Greeks, in a gentle emission of the breath from the throat, or rather 

 lungs, and differed from rt, or the spiritus asper ('), in being more 

 feeble. It was like the impulse given to the voice when we attempt 

 to pronounce deed in two syllables de-ed, or corner, as if divided thus, 

 corn-er, and may be compared with h in the French word homme, 

 or the Eng. hour. In this way it served to divide syllables, as bi^'iZJ'' 

 y«sh-aal, not yz-shal. This is the consonant power of n? and was 

 probably its original or primary power. 



The force of i< quiescent, depended on the vowel point which pre- 

 ceded. This was generally a, but sometimes other vowels. This 

 is the vowel power of N, and was probably a secondary use of this 

 letter. 



When i? had neither the force of'a consonant, nor of a vowel, it wiag 

 said to be in otio, and was then absolutely destitute of sound. 



* For this classification of the accents, see Prof. Stuart's Hebrew Grammar, Sd 

 and 4th editions. 



Vol. XXIV.— No. 1, 12 



