MacDonnell II - Wilbourhall.org

124 CONJUGATION [131Terminations.131. The following table gives the terminations, whichare on the whole the same for all verbs, of the presentsystem. The chief difference is in the optative which ischaracterized by e ^ in the first, and ya and i ' in the secondconjugation. The present indicative has the primary (mi,si, ti, &c.), and the imperfect, the optative, and (withsome modifications) the imperative have the secondaryterminations (m, s, t, &c.), while the subjunctive fluctuatesbetween the two. Of the other tenses the future takes theprimary, and the pluperfect and the aorist, with thebenedictive and the conditional, take the secondary terminations;while the perfect has in the active (with manyvariations) the secondary, and in the middle the primaryendings.The following distinctions between the two conjugationsshould be noted. In the first or a conjugation (as in thea declension) the accent is never on the terminations, butalways on the same syllable of the stem (the root in thefirst and fourth, the affix in the sixth class), which thereforeremains unchanged. On the other hand, in the secondconjugation (as in the declension of changeable stems) theaccent falls on the strong stem, which is reduced in the weakforms by the shifting of the accent to the endings. In thesecond conjugation therefore the endings are accentedexcept in the strong forms (126). The same applies to theunaugmented imperfect (128).1That is, i coalescing with the final a of the stem ; e. g. bbav-e— bhava-i.2That is,the modal affix shows vowel gradation (5 b).