Die Pausalformen der Segolata und die Mitte des biblischen Verses

Abstract

This paper studies the conditions in which segholate nouns appear in pausal form in Biblical Hebrew. There are three different groups of segholates: (1) The nouns of the first group have regular pausal forms at the end of the verse and in the middle of it when they are marked by atnah (in the prose books) or by ole we-yored; they have sometimes pausal forms when the middle of the verse is marked by other accents; otherwise, they are regularly in the context form. These Segholates are qatl forms or, less common, qitl. (2) The second group never has pausal forms. These are nouns of II vaw, III alef, III he, III vaw or nouns with three strong consonants in the qitl formation whose first consonant normally is not explosive. (3) The third group has pausal forms even in other positions within the verse, especially at the end of a grammatical sentence. Most of them are III yod or I alef qatl nouns. The second part of the paper studies further conditions for pausal forms of segholate nouns and of other words in the middle of the verse where they are not marked by prose atnah or by ole we-yored. If such verses have a pausal form, it is normally at the position marked by the accents as the middle of the verse. If they are marked by zaqef or poetic atnah, one finds normally pausal forms. Poetic atnah, which is not the middle of the verse, has normally pausal forms only of words other than segholates. In the middle of the verse marked by tifha there are sometimes pausal forms, but in short verses one finds only pausal forms of segholates.