the rule that changes certain vowels if the word is the last one in a sentence
Interesting. Is this a characteristic of (biblical) Hebrew in general, or of Torah-reading in particular? I don't recall ever encountering it (but then my Hebrew studies are limited to Hebrew school about 50 years ago and some general linguistics readings rather more recently).
Biblical Hebrew in general (and later, though I don't think it's still productive in modern Hebrew). One example is in the blessing for wine (and grape juice) which ends in "bore p'ri hagafen" even though the standard word for "the vine" is "hagefen".
Biblical Hebrew; I don't think it happens in the modern language (though I'm far from an expert). The most common example has already been pointed out. One that recurred in this portion was "kesef" (silver) going to "kasef". I don't know of any cases where it isn't a segol being transformed, but I don't know if that's the rule or just a coincidence. This is different from, but seems similar to, the rule that sometimes transforms a segol when preceeded by the definite article (so eretz Yisrael but ha-aretz).
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Interesting. Is this a characteristic of (biblical) Hebrew in general, or of Torah-reading in particular? I don't recall ever encountering it (but then my Hebrew studies are limited to Hebrew school about 50 years ago and some general linguistics readings rather more recently).
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