18 Introduction. 71. The characteristic of a proper (i. e. finite or personal) verb-form is its personal ending. By this alone is determined its character as regards person and number, and in part also as regards mode and tense. But the distinctions of mode and tense are mainly made by the formation of mode and tense-stems, to which, instead of to the bare root, the personal endings are appended. e Conjugation - Classes. 72. Of the whole conjugation, the present-system is the im- portant and prominent part. Its forms are very much more fre- quent than those of all the other systems together. As there is also great variety in the manner in which different roots form their present-stems, this, as being their most conspicuous difference, is made the basis of their principal classification; and a verb is said to be of this or that conjugation, or class, according to the way in which its present-stem is made. 73. Of these conjugation- classes there are nine, including the passive, which is really a present-system only. The first five exhibit coincidences enough to justify their inclusion into one con- jugation, and the remaining four will compose likewise a second conjugation. The chief distinctions between the two groups are as follows: 74. In the first, the classes have in common, as their funda- mental characteristic, a shift of accent: the tone is now upon the personal ending, now upon the root or the class-sign. Along with this goes a variation in the stem itself, which has a stronger, or fuller, form wben the accent rests upon it, and a weaker, or briefer, form when the accent is on the ending. We distinguish these forms as the strong and the weak stem-forms respectively. 75. In the second conjugation, on the contrary, the accent bas a fixed place, remaining always upon the same syllable of the remai On 3 NOW Univ Calif - Digitized by Microsoft ®
