1. CHAPTER 4 Duane A. Garrett & Jason S. DeRouchie
A MODERN GRAMMAR FOR BIBLICAL HEBREW
(B&H, 2009)

2. Accent Shift and Vowel Changes
CHAPTER 4

3. דָּ/בָר אֱ/לֹ /הִים Key Terms Open syllable: CV Closed syllable: CVC
Ultima: Last syllable of a word
Penult: 2nd-to-last syllable of a word
Antepenult: 3rd-to-last syllable of a word
Tone syllable: The accented syllable
Pretonic: The syllable immediately in front of the accented syllable
Propretonic: The syllable immediately preceding the pretonic
Distant: Any syllable preceding the pretonic
Full vowel: All long & short vowels
Reduced vowel: Shewa and Hateph vowels/composite Shewas

4. Syllable Definitions with בְּרָכָה and מִצְרַ֫יִם

5. Vowel Transformation Rules1
Accented syllables have full vowels.
דָּבָר , עֶ֫בֶד , עַם 2
Open unaccented syllables are long or reduced, not short
אֱ/דָ/מָה , דָּ/בָר 3
Closed, unaccented syllables are short
מַלְ/כָּה 4
Open pretonics are generally long 5
Open distant syllables generally reduce
אֱ/לֹ/הִים , דְּ/בָ/רִים 6
Open distant syllables with unchangable long vowels do not reduce
שׁוֹ/פְ/טִים 7
If distant will not reduce, open pretonic may (esp. i- or u-class vowels)
See next page

6. E.g., Absolute שׁוֹפֵט > plural שׁוֹפְטִים
Step 1
שׁוֹ/פֵט
Singular form with i-class stem vowel /פֵט/
Step 2
*שׁוֹ/פֵ/טִים
With plural ending, accent shifts to new syllable /טִים/, so that /שׁוֹ/ is now open propretonic (distant);
but the Holem Waw
will not reduce
Step 3
שׁוֹ/פְ/טִים
The pretonic vowel Tsere of the singular form (שׁוֹ/פֵט) reduces to Shewa in /פְ/ of
the plural form = open
pretonic reduction

7. Rules of Vowel Transformation

8. Vowel Transformation Rules8
Compensatory lengthening happens in vowels preceding a guttural that will not double as expected
מִשַּׁ֫עַר
מֵאָשֵׁר (vs) 9
Sometimes א will quiesce:
(a) א with no vowel
(b) preceding vowel lengthens
חַטָּאת 10
Vowel combinations that contracts with loss of accent
עֵין < עַ֫יִן
מוֹת < מָ֫וֶת

9. Vowel Transformation Rules
Accented syllables have full vowels (long or short, not reduced).
Open, unaccented syllables are long or reduced, never short.
Closed, unaccented syllables are short.
Open pretonics are generally long.
Open distants generally reduce to Shewa or composite Shewa.
Open distants with an unchangeable long vowels will not reduce.
If a distant syllable will not reduce, an open pretonic may
(esp. with i- and u-class vowels)
Gutturals & ר will not double, resulting in compensatory
lengthening.
At times, א will “quiesce,” resulting in lengthening of preceding
vowel
10. Vowel combinations that contract to single vowels when the accent is lost: E.g., עֵין < עַ֫יִן and מוֹת < מָ֫וֶת