# Shortening of vowel and moving of stress in final syllable in jussive form



## Sharjeel72

Hi, again

In the form ‎וַיָּקָם why is the last vowel short and why did the stress move back? Originally it was יָקוּם, right?

Is there a rule that you can tell me please?

Thanks.


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## Drink

For this you have to look back to earlier stages of Hebrew, before (most) word-final short vowels were dropped. At that time, the prefix conjugation in the indicative mood had a short -u suffix: yaktubu (or maybe yiktubu), yaqūmu. In the jussive, however, it had a null suffix: yaktubu/yiktubu > yaktub/yiktub. But yaqūmu becomes yaqum with a shortened vowel, because an originally long vowel could not occur in a closed syllable.

Later, sound changes changed these forms as follows:

- yaktubu/yiktubu > yixtōv
- yaktub/yiktub > yixtōv (same as above)
- yaqūmu > yāqūm
- yaqum > yāqom (with penultimate stress) or yāqōm (with ultimate stress)

Hope that answers your question.


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## Ali Smith

An addendum to what Drink said: the rule is that the stress moves back to the penultimate syllable when you add a waw-retentive to the prefix-conjugation verb if and only if the following conditions obtain:

1. both the ultimate and penultimate syllables contain a long vowel, and

2. the ultimate syllable is closed.

Next, the ultimate syllable’s vowel is shortened because the syllable is closed and no longer stressed.

Here’s another example:

וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י ב֤וֹ שָׁבַת֙ מִכׇּל־מְלַאכְתּ֔וֹ אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֥א אֱלֹהִ֖ים לַעֲשֽׂוֹת׃
(בראשית ב ג)

This verb was originally יְבָרֵךְ.


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## Drink

I'm not sure where you pulled out these two criteria.

The first one is simply wrong, as the second vowel can certainly be short as in ויאמר or וַיִּפָּתַח. And as for the first syllable, I would argue that the true criterion is that it is open, rather than long, but these go hand in hand in an unstressed syllable anyway.

The second one is very strange. It seemingly only rules out verbs whose roots end in ה (original י/ו) or in א. It happens to be true for the latter, but that's more to do with the quirks of the letter א than with the fact that the syllable is open. And with the former, the rule doesn't really hold. It may be better to just say "if the root doesn't end in א" rather than "if the syllable is closed".

Furthermore, these criteria are insufficient in describing the rules surrounding geminate roots.


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## JAN SHAR

Then why does the stress move to the first syllable in ויעש ?

ויעש אלהים את שני המארת הגדלים את המאור הגדל לממשלת היום ואת המאור הקטן לממשלת הלילה ואת הכוכבים


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## Ali Smith

JAN SHAR said:


> Then why does the stress move to the first syllable in ויעש ?
> 
> ויעש אלהים את שני המארת הגדלים את המאור הגדל לממשלת היום ואת המאור הקטן לממשלת הלילה ואת הכוכבים


Because it becomes just like a segholate noun, and we all know where the stress lies in such nouns.


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## JAN SHAR

No, I don't know. Where does it lie?


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## Drink

A segolate noun is a noun in which a final consonant cluster developed an epenthetic vowel (usually a segol, hence the name; but notably it is patach when adjacent to the letters הח"ע). This epenthetic vowel, however, does not take the stress, and so the word ends up penultimately stressed. In this case, it's the same idea, just not a noun: *ya‘s became *ya*‘as.


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## Ali Smith

What about the short form of תִּרְאֶה, which is vb. 3f.s. PC Qal ראה 'to see'/'she will see'? Why is it וַתֵּ֫רֶא? It seems anomalous, for it does not follow the rule for short forms. I believe the rule is that the stress moves back to the penultimate syllable if the ultimate syllable is closed and the penultimate syllable is open. When this happens, the ultimate syllable is no longer stressed and therefore cannot contain a long vowel (because an unstressed closed syllable can contain only a short vowel).

So, why has the stress moved back to the penultimate syllable in וַתֵּ֫רֶא?


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## radagasty

Ali Smith said:


> So, why has the stress moved back to the penultimate syllable in וַתֵּ֫רֶא?



I am not sure if I am convinced that these rules of yours are correct, but, in any case, וַתֵּרֶא is segholate, just like וַיַּעַשׂ.


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## Drink

The stress doesn't move back here, rather the last syllable is lost, as that is the regular rule for verbs ending in vocalic ה.

This leaves a consonant cluster, and often this context cluster is avoided in a segolate-like manner, and often it is kept, depending on the particular consonants involved.


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## Ali Smith

Thanks, but then why does יִרְאֶה become וַיַּרְא?


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## Drink

The two forms of the word handled the consonant cluster in two different ways. One added an epenthetic vowel, the other didn't. Neither form is surprising on its own, the only surprising thing is why they came out different from each other. Nevertheless that's how they came out. וירא has no epenthetic vowel, whole ותרא and all other forms do have one.


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## Drink

To add, it's also important to notice that in both וירא and ותרא, the stress is in the same place. The difference between them is not the placement of the stress, whether there is another vowel after it or not.


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