The first principle. An elucidation of nouns whose first radical nun is deficient (ḥaserei peʾah-nun).

1. Know that all nouns whose first radical nun is deficient (ḥaserei peʾah-nun) appear with an added mem at the beginning. This mem is always vocalized with a pataḥ, and a dagesh follows it, in order to indicate the missing nun. Thus, for example: mattaʿ (“planting”), whose root is nataʿ, and massaʿ (“journey”), whose root is nasaʿ. Likewise mabboʿa (“spring”) and mabbul (“flood”), whose roots are navaʿ and naval. These nouns also occur with the feminine he ending, such as mappēla (“downfall”) and mattara (“target”), and with a tsere, such as maggēfa (“plague”) and massēkha (“molten image”), and the like. The same rule applies to nouns deficient in an initial yod, for their grammatical treatment is identical to that of nouns deficient in an initial nun, as explained in the Second Treatise, Principle Six, Section Six.

2. Know that nouns which are geminated (i.e., marked by a dagesh) do not undergo vowel change, as explained in the Third Treatise, Principle Five, Section One. Accordingly, nouns deficient in the first radical that pattern with quiescent lamed behave in the same way, such as makkeh and matsah, whose roots are nakah and natsah, and whose final he marks the feminine. By contrast, qatsar ha-matsah (“the covering is too short”) has the root yatsaʿ. Some nouns have a final he that is truly part of the root, such as matteh; the proof that the he is radical is that it is preceded by a segol. This will be explained further in this Treatise, Principle Six. Likewise, among nouns deficient at the end we find mattan, and among those deficient at both ends mattet.

3. Know that every noun you find with an initial mem bearing a pataḥ and followed by a dagesh is a noun deficient in an initial nun. There are also two such nouns with an added he at the beginning and a dagesh following it, such as ruaḥ ve-hatsalah (“relief and deliverance”) and hakkarat penehem (“the recognition of their faces”), whose roots are natsal and nakhar. There are also two nouns of this class that appear without any added letter at the beginning, namely si and sig, as in ya‘aleh la-shamayim si’o (“his height rises to the heavens”) and ve-khi sig lo (“and when he mocks him”), whose roots are nasa and nasag. However, no general rule can be derived from these, for they are very few.