The lengthening or reducing of vowels will be considered later. 2. Long Vowels 1. Long vowels written with Vav or Yod—סוֹ, סִי, for example—are historic long vowels. These vowels never reduce to a short vowel or a shewa.5 2. Historic long vowels may be written defectively (partially)—that is, without the Yod or Vav.6 The historic long Ḥireq-Yod, then, may be written סִי or defectively (partially) סִ. A dot under a letter, therefore, may be a short Ḥireq or an historic long Ḥireq-Yod written defectively.
Page 6