APPENDIX C

 

CONJUGATION

 

C2. THE SECOND CONJUGATION

 

C2.0 FEATURES OF THE SECOND CONJUGATION (C2)

 

C2.01 Verbs of the Second Conjugation are those which have the following two features: (a) The verb stem is the aorist stem, to which affixes are added to form all the other tenses; and (b) The Indicative active aorist is formed from the verb stem by adding the augment, the neutral morph (-ο/ε-) and the secondary endings as the pronoun morphs: that is, the indicative active aorist of Second Conjugation verbs is formed in exactly the same way as the indicative active past durative (i.e., the imperfect) is formed for First Conjugation verbs from the durative (i.e., present) stem of those verbs.

 

C2.02 The conjugation of Second Conjugation verbs is shown in the Conjugation Conspectus, #C6. It will be seen that, as the aorist and imperfect indicative active have the same pronoun endings, and as (seeing they are both past tense flexions) they each have the augment, in consequence they differ only in their stem: the aorist flexion is built directly on the verb stem, while the imperfect is built on the present (durative) stem - which for the Second Conjugation is always longer than the aorist (verb) stem. That is, for Second Conjugation verbs the present stem is formed from the aorist (verb) stem by the addition into the lexal of a durative infix. (There are two exceptions, t76a and dya: see #C2.7; in these two verbs the aorist and present stems differ in other ways.)

 

C2.03 For a comparison of the formation of the flexions for the three Conjugations, see #10.1, #10.2.

 

C2.04 The following Synopsis contains the thirty-four Second Conjugation verbs occurring in the New Testament, that is, verbs for which second aorist forms occur in the New Testament. Some verbs had both first aorist and second aorist forms simultaneously in existence in Hellenistic Greek usage; these circulated side by side as it were, and which of these forms a writer chose to use was a matter of style or personal preference - though during the New Testament period the flrst aorist forms were tending to supplant the second aorist alternatives. In some verbs this had reached the point where, for a given verb, only first aorist forms are found in the New Testament although the second aorist forms were still also in use, or had been in use in Classical Greek. In such cases, and in the case of any other verbs which did have second aorist forms but for which no such forms actually occur in the New Testament, the verb is not listed here as Second Conjugation: there is no reason to distinguish it from First Conjugation in learning to read the Greek New Testament.

 

C2.05 The main feature subdividing the Second Conjugation verbs is that of the manner in which they form their durative (present) stem from their verb (aorist) stem, and they are categorised here on this basis. It will be seen that they subdivide into eight groups.

 

 

C2.1 REDUPLICATE IN -ι

γίνομαι	become	γενήσομαι	ἐγενόμην	γέγονα	γεγένημαι	ἐγενήθην
πίπτω	fall	πεσέομαι	ἔπεσον ἔπεσα	πέπτωκα	—	—
τίκτω	bear	τέξομαι	ἔτεκον	(τέτοχα)	(τέτεγμαι)	ἐτέχθην

 

C2.2 DOUBLE THE –λ

ἀναθάλλω	revive	ἀναθαλέω	ἀνέθαλον	—	—	—
βάλλω	throw	βαλέω	ἔβαλον	βέβληκα	βέβλημαι	ἐβλήθην
ἐφάλλομαι	jump on	ἐφαλέομαι	ἐφαλόμην	—	—	—

 

C2.3 ADD -ν (alone, or with other letters)

 

C2.31 ADD -v

κάμνω	be ill	—	ἔκαμον	—	—	—
περιτέμνω	circumcise	περιτεμέω	περιέτεμον	περιτέτμηκα	περιτέτμημαι	περιετμήθην
πίνω	drink	πίομαι	ἔπιον	πέπωκα	(πέπομαι)	ἐπόθην

 

C2.32 ADD -νε

ἀφικνέομαι

reach

(ἀφίξομαι)

ἀφικόμην

—

—

—

 

C2.33 ADD -αν

αἰσθάνομαι	understand	αἰσθήσομας	ᾐσθόμην	—	—	—
ἁμαρτάνω	sin	ἁμαρτήσω	ἥμαρτον ἡμάρτησα	ἡμάρτηκα	(ἡμάρτημαι)	(ἡμαρτήθην)

 

C2.34 ADD -ν.αν

θιγγάνω	touch	(θίξω)	ἔθιγον	—	—	—
λαγχάνω	obtain	(λήξομαι)	ἔλαχον	—	—	—
λαμβάνω	take	(λήμψομαι)	ἔλαβον	εἴληφα	εἴλημμαι	ἐλήμφθην
λανθάνω	be hidden	(λήσω)	ἔλαθον	(λέληθα)	λέλησμαι	—
μανθάνω	learn	(μαθήσομαι)	ἔμαθον	μεμάθηκα	—	—
πυνθάνομαι	inquire	—	ἐπυθόμην	—	—	—
τυγχάνω	happen	—	ἔτυχον	τέτυχα	—	—

 

C2.4 ADD -ισκ (after a consonant) OR -σκ (after a vowel)

εὑρίσκω	find	εὑρήσω	εὗρον εὕρησα	εὕρηκα	(εὕρημαι)	εὑρέθην
-θνῄσκω	die	-θανέομαι	-ἔθανον	τέθνηκα	—	—
πάσχω	suffer	—	ἔπαθον	πέπονθα	—	—

 

C2.5 ADD -ε- TO FORM A DIPHTHONG

λείπω	leave	λείψω	ἔλιπον ἔλειψα	(λέλοιπα)	λέλειμμαι	ἐλείφθην
φεύγω	flee	φεύξομαι	ἔφυγον	πέφευγα	—	—

 

C2.6 CHANGE -γ- INTO -ζ

ἀνακράζω

cry out

ἀνακράξω

ἀνέκραγον ἀνέκραξα

ἀνακέκραγα

—

—

 

C2.7 SUBTRACTION OF INITIAL SEGMENT OF STEM

ἔχω	have	ἕξω	ἔσχον	ἔσχηκα	—	—
ἄγω	bring	ἄξω	ἤγαγον -ἦξα	(ἦχα)	ἦγμαι	ἤχθην

C2.8 SUPPLETIVES αἱρέω take away ἑλέω αἱρήσομαι εἷλον εἷλα — ᾔρημαι ᾐρέθην ἔρχομαι come ἐλεύσομαι ἦλθον ἦλθα ἐλήλυθα — — ἐσθίω eat φάγομαι ἔφαγον — — — λέγω/φημί say/speak ἐρέω εἶπον εἶπα εἴρηκα εἴρημαι ἐρρέθην ὁράω see ὄψομαι εἶδον εἶδα ἑώρακα ἑόρακα (ἑώραμαι) ὤφθην τρέχω run (δραμέομαι) ἔδραμον (δεδράμηκα) (δεδράμημαι) — φέρω carry οἴσω ἤνεγκον ἤνεγκα ἐνήνοχα (ἐνήνεγμαι) ἠνέχθην

 

C2.9 CONCERNING THE FEATURES OF VERBS OF THE SECOND CONJUGATION

 

C2.91 The foregoing is the complete list of all verbs which have a second aorist active form in the New Testament. Where a dash occurs in this Synopsis, it indicates that no form derived from that particular Principal Part occurs in the United Bible Societies’ Edition of the New Testament, either for the simplex or compound form of that verb. Other tenses and forms may possibly be found in variant readings or in koinē Greek outside the New Testament, but it is not necessary to give them here. However, some forms are given in this Synopsis even though no derived forms from them occur in the New Testament, where these are of interest or of help in understanding the pattern of the verb - these forms appear in brackets.

 

C2.92 Usually the simplex form of a verb is given in the Synopsis. It must be remembered that many of these verbs also take initial prepositions to form compound verbs. These comments apply to the compound as well as to the simplex form of these verbs.

 

C2.93 It can be noticed that, of these thirty-four verbs, ten also have first aorist forms which are found in Hellenistic (and New Testament) Greek. These ten are: πίπτω, ἁμαρτάνω, εὑρισκω, λείπω, ἀνακράζω ἄγω, αἱρεω, λέγω, ὁράω, φέρω. For some words, it is the first aorist form which is the more common, and for others the second aorist form is the usual one. For example: ἤγαγον (second aorist form) is the usual aorist for ἄγω, and ἦξα (first aorist form) is much less common and found only in compounds; but the first aorist ἤνεγκα is the usual one for φέρω and the second aorist ἤνεγκον is rare and in the New Testament occurs only in the infinitive. The tendency to form first aorists in place of second aorists (see #C2.04) can be seen in the flexions of ἦλθα (for ἦλθον), εἶπα (for εἶπον) and εἶδα (for εἶδον), where the second aorist set of endings for the flexion has been replaced by the first aorist endings - but without the use of the -σ- with the -σ-, although the sigma is otherwise absent only in the case of the liquid stem verbs.

 

C2.94 The endings of the second aorist active are identical with those of the imperfect active, and the endings of the second aorist middle are identical with those of the imperfect middle. Thus the forms, on the one hand, of a Second Conjugation verb in the aorist and, on the other hand, of the imperfect flexions differ only in stem. The flexions for the Second Conjugation are set out in the Conjugation Conspectus, #C6. (For a comparison of second aorist and imperfect flexions, see #6.73.)

 

C2.95 Apart from their aorist active and middle flexions, Second Conjugation verbs conjugate with the same flexion endings as First Conjugation verbs in all flexions, once the Principal Parts are known - but the formation of the Principal Parts for Second Conjugation verbs is unpredictable from the lexical form (that is to say, they are irregular verbs) and these Principal Parts (as set out above) will need to be noted individually for each Second Conjugation verb.

 

C2.96 Five Second Conjugation verbs display metathesis (the transposing of two letters of their root). The metathesis for these verbs can be seen:

(a) βάλλω:	root βαλ → βλα → βλη
(b) τίκτω:	root τεκ, with reduplication in -ι- (#C2.1) τιτεκ → τιτκ (by syncopation, #C2.97) → τικτ (as in τίκτω)
(c) θνῄσκω:	root θαν → θανισκω (see #C2.4) → θναισκω → θνῄσκω
Also:	root θαν → τεθανκα → τεθνακα → τέθνηκα
(d) περιτέμνω:	root (περι)τεμ → τετεμκα → τετμεκα → (περι)τέτμηκα
(e) ἔχω:	root σεχ → σχε → ἐσχεκα → ἔσχηκα

 

C2.97 Six verbs have lost a short vowel between consonants (this feature is called syncopation: described in #E2.5) and/or a consonant; and have also had the root vowel change to -ο- in the perfect:

(a) γίνομαι:	root γεν → γιγενομαι (#C2.1) → γίγνομαι → γίνομαι
	root γεν → γεγενα → γέγονα
(b) ἔχω:	root σεχ → σέχω → ἑχω → ἔχω
	root σεχ → ἐσεχον → ἔσχον
(c) πίπτω:	root πετ → πιπετω (#C2.1) → πίπτω
	root πετ → πεπετ → πεπτε (#C2.96) → πεπτοκα → πέπτωκα
(d) φέρω:	root (εν)ενεκ → ἠνενκον → ἤνεγκον
	root (εν)ενεκ → ἐνηνεχα → ἐνήνοχα
(e) πάσχω:	root πα(ν)θ → παθσκω (#C2.4) → πάσχω
	root πα(ν)θ → πεπανθα → πέπονθα
(f) πίνω:	root πι → πεπικα → πεποκα → πέπωκα

 

The arows indicate changes that have taken place (or that are hypothesised to have taken place), most of them in the pre-history of the language, before we have any record of it, to account for the forms that do occur.

 

C2.98 Seven verbs (set out in #C2.34) add to the lexal of the word a two-part or discontinuous infix: -ν- between the final vowel of the root and the final consonant, plus -αν after the final consonant. This is written as the infix -ν.αν, where the full stop (.) indicates the final consonant of the root of a particular verb. This -ν- then assimilates (see #82.77) to the place of articulation (see #1.62-#1.69) of that consonant which then follows it, becoming -μ- in front of a labial, and -γ- (enga, "ng") in front of a palatal.

 

C2.99 Seven verbs (set out in #C2.8) are suppletives, that is, they are defective, and supplement their missing tenses to complete (to some extent, at least) their verb systems by drawing upon flexions from one or two other verb roots with similar lexical meanings. These seven are the only suppletive verb systems which occur in the New Testament. (Some scholars have identified πύπτω/παίω/πατάσσω/πλήσσω as being an eighth, but as these verbs all have a present form and overlap in distribution and usage, they are better to be regarded simply as synonyms.)