1. The Principle of Vowel Reduction

2. Hatuf
Patach
Segol
Qamets
Qamets Hatuf – considered a short vowel in closed, unaccented syllables; has an “o” sound as in “hope”
Qamets – changeable long in all syllables except closed, unaccented; has an “a” sound as in “father” (a metheg helps identify these, for example pg. 9 vocabulary)
Reduced Vowels – occur below gutturals since gutturals cannot take a full shewa.
Pratico, Gary D. and Miles V. Van Pelt, Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar, Zondervan, 2007 (pg. 15).

3. "Propretonic Reduction"

4. Pro/pre/tonic מְלָכִים מְ לָ כִים Tonic Pretonic Propretonic
Tonic – the syllable receiving the accent (usually the last syllable of the word).
Pretonic – the syllable before the syllable receiving the accent.
Propretonic – the syllable before the pretonic syllable.
מְלָכִים
מְ לָ כִים
Tonic
Pretonic
Propretonic

5. When a suffix is added to a noun….
First: There is an attempt to reduce the vowel in the propretonic syllable to a shewa.
If the propretonic syllable has a short vowel, it will not reduce.
For example: עוֹלָם (singular) עוֹלָמִים (plural)
If the propretonic syllable is a closed syllable, it will not reduce.
For example: מִשְׁפָּט (singular) מִשְׁפָּטִם (plural)
If the propretonic syllable is open and has a qamets (not a qamets hatuf) or tsere, it will reduce to a shewa.
For example: דָּבָר (singular) דְּבָרים (plural)

6. מִשְׁפָּט (singular) מִשְׁפָּטִים (plural)
If at first you don’t succeed….
First: There is an attempt to reduce the vowel in the propretonic syllable to a shewa.
Second: If the reduction cannot take place in the propretonic syllable, reduction tries to take place in the pretonic syllable.
Only if the pretonic vowel is a tsere, will it reduce to a shewa.
For example: מִזְבֵּחַ (singular) מִזְבְּחוׂת (plural)
An example where the pretonic vowel is not a tsere:
מִשְׁפָּט (singular) מִשְׁפָּטִים (plural)

7. בּוֹר בּוׂרוׂת סוּס סוּסִים נָבִיא נְבִיאִים צָבָא צְבָאוׂת רְחוׂב
Will the vowels of these nouns reduce?
1st Propretonic
If the propretonic syllable has a short vowel or unchangeable long vowel, it will not reduce. If the propretonic syllable is a closed syllable, it will not reduce. If the propretonic syllable is open and has a qamets or tsere, it will reduce to a shewa. 2nd Pretonic
Only if the pretonic vowel is a tsere, will it reduce to a shewa.
בּוֹר
בּוׂרוׂת No
סוּס
סוּסִים No
נָבִיא
נְבִיאִים
Yes
צָבָא
צְבָאוׂת
Yes
רְחוׂב
רְחוׂבוׂת No
זָקֵן
זְקֵנִים
Yes
לֵבָב
לְבָבוׂת
Yes
מֶלֶך
מְלֵךָ
Yes
Wait! How come the vowels changed??

8. Segolates ֶֶ מֶלֶךְ דֶּרֶךְ נֶפֶש מְלָכִים דְּרָכִים נְפָשִים
מֶלֶךְ דֶּרֶךְ נֶפֶש
The masculine plural form always has the vowel pattern of shewa-qamets
מְלָכִים דְּרָכִים נְפָשִים
Unless the first consonant is a guttural (remember, they are a pain), then the pattern is khatef patakh-qamets
For example: אֶרֶץ אֲרָצִים

9. *Whew* Time for a Scooby Snack!
Just remember:
When a new syllable is added
the vowels may or may not reduce.
There are all sorts of exceptions to
the basic rules and you will start
to pick up on what’s happening
the more you practice your Hebrew.
Don’t worry, you’ll never have to actually
reduce vowels on a test, you just need to understand what has happened to the original vowels.

10. PS. The rules are different for verbs….
….so STAY TUNED!
We’ll deal with those later!