From: Ward Powers (bwpowers@eagles.bbs.net.au)
Date: Tue Jul 07 1998 - 23:05:51 EDT
At 15:57 98/07/07 -0400, Jonathan Robie wrote, in relation to his enquiries
from the list as to whether there are ways of recognizing a Second Aorist:
>What I'm really trying to do is write a section on the morphology of the
>Aorists and Imperfect for Little Greek 101. Should I suggest that beginners
>simply memorize the most common Second Aorists in the GNT? Or is there a
>set of rules that are worthwhile for beginners to learn?
>
>Jonathan
There are altogether 34 Second Aorist verbs in the New Testament. They are
all irregular. "Irregular", on a linguisitc definition, means "not capable
of being predicted on the basis of a rule or set of rules". These verbs
thus contrast with First Conjugation verbs (i.e., verbs with a first
aorist), where the aorist (and other) forms are predictable according to a
set of rules. (Some First Conjugation verbs are for the most part regular
[i.e., predictable] but have particular forms or paradigms which do not
conform to the rules, and these forms or paradigms would be therefore
classed as irregular.)
Stephen Carlson mentions numbers of rules which may be applied to create
the second aorist form. My understanding of the term "rule" is that it
means something which has been observed to occur in a language with
sufficient frequency so that it can be put forward (mainly for pedagogical
purposes) as a statement of what normally happens in relation to words of a
stipulated category; words or forms which do not conform to this
generalization ("rule") are then noted as "irregular".
(Stephen: the last three of the five verbs you mention [EPTOMHN < PETOMAI;
ETRAPON < TREPW; EDRAKON < DERKOMAI] elude me when I try to find them in
the GNT. I do not think they occur. Am I overlooking them?)
There are no Second Conjugation verbs (i.e., verbs with a second aorist)
for which it is possible to say, "Starting from the lexical form (the one
under which the verb is listed in a lexicon, the first person singular
present indicative active) you then do so-and-so", and from this get the
aorist forms for those verbs. However, there are a number of patterns which
are followed by Second Conjugation verbs, and knowing about these is some
help. But these begin not with the present form but with the root, which
lies behind the aorist form.
The most common pattern that is found (it is followed by seven verbs) is
this: "Take the aorist root (the second aorist form, minus augment and
ending) and add "N" before the last consonant and "AN" after it." Thus from
aorist ELAQON one gets LANQANW, from EMAQON, MANQANW, and from EPUQOMHN,
PUNQANOMAI. The assimilation rule also applies, where relevant. This rule
states, in relation to nasal liquid consonants, "Wherever a nasal liquid
consonant is followed by a morph commencing with a consonant of a different
place of articulation, the nasal changes its place of articulation to
correspond with that of the consonant which follows it." Thus ELABON gives
initially LANBANW, and then in accordance with this assimilation rule the
"N", which is the dental nasal liquid, changes to "M", which is the labial
nasal liquid, because the following phoneme, "B", is a labial. This gives
us LAMBANW. Similarly in front of a palatal consonant, the inserted nu will
change to the palatal nasal consonant "G" (enga, pronounced "-ng-", not to
be confused with gamma). Thus: EQIGON, QIGGANW; ELACON, LAGCANW; ETUCON,
TUGCANW. That lists the seven verbs of this category.
There is no other major category for the other Second Conjugation verbs. In
forming their present form from their root, three of them reduplicate their
initial consonant with iota (but the form of the second aorists has become
even more irregular - PIPTW, mentioned by Professor Adam, is one of these);
the three of them with roots ending in "L" double this lambda; three add
"N"; one adds "NE"; two add "AN"; three follow a pattern also found in some
other verbs, to add "ISK" after a consonant or "SK" after a vowel; and two
add "E" in front of the vowel of the root, to form a diphthong (the verb
ELIPON mentioned by Jonathan thus becomes LEIPW; and similarly EFUGON
becomes FEUGW).
Then one verb (ANEKRAGON) changes the "G" of its root into "Z", and two
subtract a segment of their aorist stem (ESCON and HGAGON). Finally there
are the seven suppletives: verbs which utilize different roots to compile
their principal parts (hEILON; HLQON; EFAGON; EIPON; EIDON; EDRAMON; HNEGKON).
That completes the listing of the behaviour of the thirty-four second aorists.
However, the complications do not quite end there. Professor Adam mentioned
that PIPTW is found in the GNT with both first aorist and second aorist
endings, as EPESON and EPESA. Indeed, lots of Second and Third Conjugation
verbs were in the process of changing from these forms to the use of first
aorist endings in NT times and some eleven second aorists altogether are
found in the GNT with variant forms which have first aorist endings.
Jonathan, you will find a complete listing of all 34 second aorists in
their categories on pages 231 to 233 of my book "Learn To Read The Greek
New Testament"; the "Nasal liquid assimilation rule" in paragraph E2.72 on
page 290; and the classification of consonants in Section 1.6, pages 29-30.
You ask whether beginners should simply memorize the most common second
aorists in the GNT, or whether there is a set of rules for beginners to
learn. As the above information shows, there is no set of rules to cover
second aorists.
However, I suggest this way forward:
First, tell beginners pretty early on about the seven suppletives (see page
233). These are sufficiently common in the GNT to be noted for their own
sake; it just happens that all seven of these suppletives have second
aorist forms (though five of the seven also have aorist forms with first
aorist endings).
Then, beginners would probably be helped by (a) noting that what has
usually happened in second aorists in the language is for the verb root,
which shows up in the aorist, to have added a "durative morph" infix when
forming the present, and (b) by listing what these different infixes are.
At least then beginners will know that the present (and imperfect) forms of
second aorist verbs will contain this extra infix; they will have to learn
what it is in a given verb on a one-by-one basis.
There are three verbs which have not added an infix: ANAKRAZW; ECW and AGW:
these will be mentioned separately.
And indeed, it is a good idea to get beginners to learn to recognize when
they have encountered one of the common Second Conjugation verbs. The
suppletives apart, about half of the second aorist verbs are pretty common,
and worth while noting. These are listed on page 90.
Regards,
Ward
Rev Dr B. Ward Powers Phone (International): 61-2-9799-7501
10 Grosvenor Crescent Phone (Australia): (02) 9799-7501
SUMMER HILL NSW 2130 email: bwpowers@eagles.bbs.net.au
AUSTRALIA.
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