The Seventh Principle: On the elucidation of pronominal suffixes.

1. Know that every noun has ten pronominal suffixes, and the letters used for them are six, whose mnemonic is “the suffixes.” Here are the ten suffixes in order, using davar (“word”) as the example: dvaro (“his word”), devarkha (“your [m.sg.] word”), devari (“my word”), dvaram (“their [m.] word”), devarkhem (“your [m.pl.] word”), dvarenu (“our word”), dvarah (“her word”), devarakh (“your [f.sg.] word”), dvaran (“their [f.] word”), devarkhen (“your [f.pl.] word”).

2. You can see that the first letter in all of them has a sheva, and the second has a qamats, except for those whose suffix ends with a mem or nun, in which the qamats of the middle radical changes to a sheva. This is because of the greater number of vowels they contain in comparison with the others. Here are the plural suffix forms from dvarim (“words”): dvarav, devarekha, dvarai, dvareihem, devarkhem, dvareinu, dvareha, devarekh, dvareihen, devarkhen.

3. You will observe that with the letters b-k-l-m (the servile letters), the first letter is pointed with sheva, except in those forms whose suffix ends with mem or nun, in which case it is pointed with ḥiriq, so that two shevas do not occur at the beginning of the word, as I wrote in the preceding principle. And with b-k-l-m a yod appears before the suffix letter to indicate the plural.

4. Know that pronominal suffixes attached to nouns always indicate possession, that is, the noun is the property of the one to whom the suffix refers. In the Ashkenazic tongue this is expressed as mein, dein, zain, and the like; and in the vernacular languages as mio, tuo, suo, or di me, di te, di quello, and so forth. Thus ʿavdo (“his servant”) and ʾamato (“his maidservant”) mean “a servant belonging to him” and “a maidservant belonging to him.” But pronominal suffixes attached to verbs indicate the object acted upon, as in peqado, peqadkha, peqadani. In the Ashkenazic tongue: ikh, dikh, mikh; and in the vernacular languages: mi, ti, quello, and the like. That is to say: “he visited him,” “he visited you,” “he visited me,” as I will explain to you clearly in the chapter on pronominal suffixes.

2. Now, the seven letters that are used at the beginning of nouns have the mnemonic m-sh-h and k-l-b. And since, because of them, the vowel-points of nouns do not change, there is no need to explain them here. Their rules will be explained in the chapter on the servile letters.