The second principle. On the elucidation of nouns with a quiescent first radical aleph or yod.

1. Know that a letter can never be quiescent at the beginning of a word. Therefore these verbs appear at the beginning of a word in the same manner as complete roots, for example: from ʾamar comes ʾomer; and from ʾakhal come ʾokhel or ʾakhilah. They are also found with an added mem at the beginning, such as maʾamar and maʾakhal, with the aleph vocalized. Likewise, in the middle of a word the aleph does not become quiescent, as in: from shaʾal come sheʾelah or mishʾal.

2. Nouns whose first radical is a quiescent yod are, for the most part, formed with an added mem or tav at the beginning, and are vocalized with a ḥolam, as in motsa and moshav, with a qamats at the end. They are also found with a tsere at the end, such as mo‘ed and moqesh. Know that those which have a qamats in the singular will also retain a qamats in the plural, for example: from moshav and motsa one says moshavim and motsa’ot. But those which have a tsere will take a sheva in the plural, such as mofet and moqesh, yielding mofetim and moqshim. All of these are accented on the final syllable (milra‘).

You already know about the interchange of qamats and tsere at the end. Some occur with tav, such as toshav, toshavim. But for the most part those that have tav at their beginning take the feminine ending with he, such as toledah and tokheḥah. Likewise, among verbs whose final radicals are quiescent one says torah and todah, from yarah and yadah. Some are found with tav both at the beginning and the end, such as toʿelet and toḥelet. A few are also found with mem at the beginning and he at the end, such as moʿetsah and morashah. The general rule is that every noun you find with mem or tav at the beginning with the vowel ḥolam belongs to the class whose first radical is yod. Two, however, are exceptions: merek (Lev. 26:36) and moʿal (Neh. 8:6), which belong to the class of doubled roots.

A few are found with the mem pointed with shuruk, such as musar (“discipline”) and mutsak (“cast metal”). Some also appear without any added letter but with the feminine ending he, such as shanah (“year”), ʿetsah (“counsel”), deʿah (“knowledge”), and ledah (“birth”). In the construct state the tsere changes to a sheva and the qamats to a pataḥ, as explained in the First Treatise under the Second Principle. Two forms are also found without the feminine he: tse in “tse tomar lo” (“go, say to him,” Isa. 30:22) and bul in “bul harim” (“produce of the mountains,” Job 40:20), whose roots are yatsa and yakhol.