122 On the Physiology of the Arabic Language. [No. 2. 



tri-consonantal roots this hamzah or weak consonant is considered 

 as an essential constituent of the root and occasionally used when 

 euphony does not require it, as in aqwal J'yl " words." 



The hamzah seems to be chiefly used if the two consonants of the 

 element of the root were separated by a diphthong, for instance by oi. 

 In reality the diphthong is resolved into two vowels or syllables and the 

 hamzah expresses the diaeresis, as bais (j»fy (German bos', English 

 bad), though the hamzah is a much stronger consonant than the w and 

 y* the old derivatives from roots with hamzah are monosyllabic and 

 formed by the change of vowels only, as bus u**y* ev ^' misery (German, 

 Buss') ; bas, be miserable (German, bus') ; ta-bas <j»W or ta-biis ^^y, 

 thou shalt be miserable and poor. This class of roots is evidently older 

 than the preceding. It comprehends at present 142 roots, in many 

 of which it is optional to substitute a long vowel for the two short 

 vowels separated by the hamzah, you may say for instance, ras ^j 

 instead of raas u »\) i raf ci]^ instead of raaf of>. 



4. The Arabs (like the Greeks) pronounce a pectoral aspirate called 

 hamzah before every vowel which is not preceded by a consonant. 

 This aspirate is particularly strong in the case of a hiatus, and there- 

 fore in some instances they put an 'ayn ? which has the same power as 

 hamzah, but the sound is much stronger, and therefore it is a complete 

 consonant which is never dropped, whereas the hamzah is omitted under 

 certain circumstances. It often happens that an element of the root 

 which had a long vowel between two consonants has been formed into 



* The strength of the hamzah is in a great measure fictitious, it is frequently 

 written owing to a whim of the Grammarians where it is not pronounced. No part 

 of Grammar has been less understood by Arabic Grammarians than the theory of the 

 hamzah and alif. The following are the fundamental rules : Whenever hamzah 

 stands over an alif, the alif is perfectly superfluous, it is merely the fulcrum of the 

 hamzah as in ./o| #JL* amr, saala ; if we were to write ,,/o * (JX*» the same sound 

 would be expressed. Besides being the fulcrum of the hamzah, the alif has 

 only one other use — that of a circumflex accent as .L» sara ; was it not for the 

 alif, we would read sara **». The alif is therefore neither a vowel nor a consonant, 

 it is no letter at all ; but the hamzah is a letter — it is the weakest consonant. If the 

 hamzah surmounts a w or y, as in lSjjs and JUL, either the w and y must be 

 considered as mere fulcra and therefore mute, — and we must read raiif, sail or the 

 hamzah is superfluous and we must read rawuf, sayil : to write both hamzah and w 

 or hamzah and y, is a whim of the Grammarians. 



