A Grammar of Mishnaic Hebrew

THE TENSES li
thou hast fulfilled, Suk. ii. 9 (L); nri-jDy, nrinj, but also nnay Z^b.
viii. II (L); nnbgn Sifra (Weiss) 15 b ; nn-jpnn ib. 48 d, &c.
162. (a) The second masc. plur. of the perfect often ends in
|n, instead of Df), e.g. in^bg Mid. ii. 2 (but ^""W in Ab. ii. 3).
This is a common phonetic change, which may, ^however, have
been assisted by Aram, influence.*
163. (3) In the Imperfect the form Hjbbpn (second and third
fem. plur.) has entirely disappeared from MH.* Both genders use
^b^P) and ^^tpPJ?, just as in the perfect they both use ^^05, and
sometimes in MH, inb^P, e.g. iNfc'l^ T^Sorm] ^D-JKn; rfwto
women who had been married may become betrothed, and women
who had been betrothed may be married, Y^b. iv. 10; T\mn the
daughters must be fed, K^t. iv. 6 ; xiii. 3.
So also in the Imperative the form >hcj> is used also for the fem.,
e.g. • • • IJ^^tn i^f Smh npKI he said to his mother and to
his wife : bathe her ... and dance before her, Ab. d^RN. xli. 13.
In this MH has merely developed to the full a tendency already
strong in BH.' Modern Arabic has gone further in this respect
than MH, and has given up all the fem. plural forms, both in the
perfect and the imperfect.* Aram., on the other hand, has carefully
preserved the distinction of gender in all its dialects."
164. (4) The imperfect and imperative Qal is spelt plme with 1,
i>top\ hSVip. The plur. is 'hoj>\ ^^?P, except in pause where they
1 Cf. above, $ 70, and /Q/H., xx. 680 f.
* The few cases found are all imitations from BH. Thus: njpgn I^H^^p?
Dn^O, B«r. 17 a, from Prov. xxiii. 16; nj^nSPI, Pea viii. 9 (L ; editions
have nin? Vrjf, from i Sam. iii. a), from Gen.* xxvii. i; ^^J^j; HJ^nni
(Singer, p. 51), from Isa. xxxiii. 17 ; Ps. xvii. 2.
' Cf. Gen. xxx. 39; Lev. xxvi. 33 b; Judges xxi. 21a; Cant. ii. 7 ; iii. 5 ;
v. 8 ; vi. 9 ; viii. 4—ten examples of MH usage against three examples of
the older BH usage, viz. iv. 11 and iii. 11 (imperatives).
* Cf. Spitta-Bey, op. cit., § 90a (1).
Mandaic forms the only exception, cf. Noldeke, Afand, Gr,, $ 162.