it lengthened the vowel , so that the word is pronounced "nite" rather than the "nit" that would otherwise be expected for a closed syllable.
* in Hejazi Arabic's direct object pronoun, the ?? sound at the end of words has disappeared, so that the contrast in the Classical Arabic ????? (they said it) and ????? (they said) became a contrast only between the vowels as ????? (they said it) and ????? (they said).

Tone languages