persons of the Perfect are derived, and the Participle also is connected with it. קְטֹל or קְטַל, like the Imperative and Infinitive construct in sound, may also be regarded as an alternative ground-form, with which the Imperfect (see § 47) is connected.
[b] In verbs ע״וּ (i.e. with ו for their second radical) the stem-form, given both in Lexicon and Grammar, is not the 3rd sing. masc. Perfect (consisting of two consonants), but the form with medial ו, which appears in the Imperative and Infinitive; e.g. שׁוּב to return (3rd pers. perf. שָׁב): the same is the case in most stems with medial י, e.g. דִּין to judge.
[c] 2. From the pure stem, or Qal, the derivative stems are formed according to an unvarying analogy, in which the idea of the stem assumes the most varied shades of meaning, according to the changes in its form (intensive, frequentative, privative, causative, reflexive, reciprocal; some of them with corresponding passive forms), e.g. לָמַד to learn, לִמַּד to teach; שָׁכַב to lie, הִשְׁכִּיב to lay; שָׁפַט to judge, נִשְׁפַּט to contend. In other languages such formations are regarded as new or derivative verbs, e.g. Germ. fallen (to fall), fällen (to fell); trinken (to drink), tränken (to drench); Lat. lactere (to suck, Germ. saugen), lactare (to suckle, Germ. säugen); iacĕre (to throw), iacēre (to lie down); γίνομαι, γεννάω. In Hebrew, however, these formations are incomparably more regular and systematic than (e.g.) in Greek, Latin, or English; and, since the time of Reuchlin, they have usually been called conjugations of the primitive form (among the Jewish grammarians בִּנְיָנִים, i.e. formations, or more correctly species), and are always treated together in the grammar and lexicon.[1]
[d] 3. The changes in the primitive form consist either in internal modification by means of vowel-change and strengthening of the middle consonant (קִטֵּל, קֻטַּל; קוֹטֵל, קוֹטַל; cf. to lie, to lay; to fall, to fell), or in the repetition of one or two of the stem-consonants (קִטְלַל, קְטַלְטַל), or finally in the introduction of formative additions (נִקְטַל), which may also be accompanied by internal change (הִקְטִיל, הִתְקַטֵּל). Cf. § 31 b.
In Aramaic the formation of the conjugations is effected more by formative additions than by vowel-change. The vocalic distinctions have mostly become obsolete, so that, e.g. the reflexives with the prefix הִתְ, אִתְ, אֶתְ have entirely usurped the place of the passives. On the other hand, Arabic has preserved great wealth in both methods of formation, while Hebrew in this, as in other respects, holds the middle place (§ 1 m).
[e] 4. Grammarians differ as to the number and arrangement of these conjugations. The common practice, however, of calling them by the
- ↑ The term Conjugation thus has an entirely different meaning in Hebrew and Greek or Latin grammar.
