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A third instance is a form of phrase in which the passive past participle is combined with this same auxiliary to form a perfect definite, as sf "I have come," or, as more faithfully represented by other European languages, “je suis venu," and as we sometimes say ourselves, "I am come." Here an analytical construction supplies the place of the perfect. Closely allied to this is the frequent habit in writers of the classical style of expressing the same tense by the neuter of the p.p.p. with the subject in the instrumental, as a him gone," i.e. " he went," instead of

.

"by

These are the first faint indications of a method which, in the course of ages, has developed to such an extent as to constitute the leading principle in the organization of the modern verb. By this system a greater facility for expressing nice shades of meaning is obtained. may mean "he went,"

or, "he has gone," but by the other system each of these two meanings has a phrase peculiar to itself, sf meaning “he has gone," and a "he went." Precisely in the same way the Latin had only ego amavi for "I loved" and "I have loved," but the Romance languages found this insufficient, and they have

French

"I loved." j'aimai Italian io amai

Spanish yo ame

"I have loved,"

j'ai aimé.

io ho amato.

yo he amado.

§ 3. The next step in the reduction of the numerous Sanskrit tenses to a more manageable compass is seen in Pali, originally an Indian Prakrit, but which became the sacred language of the Buddhists of Ceylon, having been carried thither in the middle of the third century before Christ, by Mahendra, son of King Açoka, and spread thence to Burmah and Siam.

1 Kuhn, Beiträge zur Pali Grammatik, p. 1. But Turnour, Mahawanso xxix., gives B.C. 307. So also Childers, preface, p. ix.

Although the Pali grammarians, in their anxiety to exalt their sacred speech, tell us that the verb has ten conjugations, yet examples of all these are but rarely found. Four of the ten Sanskrit conjugations, the first, fourth, sixth, and tenth, resemble each other very closely even in that language, and are easily brought down to one in Pali. The seventh of Sanskrit also loses somewhat of its peculiar type, which consists in inserting between the vowel of the root and the final consonant, or before weak terminations. Thus in Skr. √ Tų rudh, "to obstruct," makes its present frunaddhi, but in Pali, while the is retained, the present is rundhati, after the type of the first class.

Five out of the ten Sanskrit conjugations are thus reduced almost, if not entirely, to one. Of the remaining five, the second of Sanskrit in roots which end in a vowel exhibits some traces of Sanskrit forms, while in those which end in a consonant the types of the first, or Bhû, class prevail. Skr. "to go," pr. fa, Pali also yâti, but

Skr. √ मृज् “ to rub,” pr. मार्ष्टि .

Thus

Pali majjati, as if from a Skr. Ħifa.

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The third conjugation occasionally takes the reduplication as in Sanskrit, but in many instances prefers the Bhû type. Thus

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The verb då, "to give," which belongs to this conjugation, has special developments of its own, and is discussed in § 16.

The fifth, eighth, and ninth classes are very similar even in Sanskrit, for while the fifth adds to its root, the eighth adds; but as all its roots except one already end in, it

1 Seven classes are given by Kaccâyana. See Senart, Journal Asiatique, vi. série, vol. xvii. p. 439.

comes practically to pretty much the same thing as the fifth. The ninth adds,, and to the root before various terminations. Here Pali draws very slight distinctions, making verbs of the fifth class take and indifferently, and both fifth and ninth appear occasionally in the guise of the first. Thus

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The reason why the forms of the Bhû conjugation exercise so great an influence, and, like the -as-stem in nouns, so largely displace all the other types, is probably that the first conjugation is by far the largest, containing upwards of nine hundred out of the two thousand roots said to exist in Sanskrit. The second conjugation has only seventy-three, the third but twenty-five, the fourth and sixth about one hundred and forty each. The tenth, it is true, contains four hundred, but it is identical in form with the causal. The fifth has only thirtythree, the ninth sixty-one, while under the seventh class are twenty-five, and under the eighth only nine. These figures, it must be added, are taken from the Dhâtupâțha, a grammarian's list of roots, which contains many roots seldom, if ever, found in use, so that for all practical purposes the first conjugation covers more than half the verbs in the language. When it is also remembered that the fourth, sixth, and tenth differ but slightly from the first, it is not surprising that the terminations common to these four conjugations should have fixed themselves in the popular mind, and been added by the vulgar to all roots indiscriminately. Nearly all those verbs which retain the type of any conjugation, except the first, are words of extremely common use, which would naturally keep their

1 Westergaard, Radices Sanskr. p. 342.

well-known forms in the mouths of the people in spite of all rules and tendencies to the contrary.

§ 4. The dual number has entirely disappeared from Pali, and the Atmanepada, or middle phase, has practically merged into the active, for although Kaccâyana (J. As., vol. xvii. p. 429, sûtra 18) gives terminations for it, yet it is admitted that those of the active may be used instead, and practically it would appear that they are so used. The other phases, as causal, passive, desiderative, and intensive, have their own forms as in Sanskrit.

Among the tenses the chief is the present, and it is in Pali that we first find a tendency to retain throughout the whole verb that form of the root which is in use in the present. This tendency grows stronger in the later Prakrits, and becomes an almost invariable rule in the modern languages. Thus

Skr. / एच् “ cook,” present पचति.

Pa. पचति.

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Phonetic influences in Sanskrit change this root as regards its final consonant in the different tenses, but Pali, having got hold of the form pach in the present tense, retains it throughout the verb. It is still, however, only a tendency, and not a law, for we find instances in which Pali forms are derived directly from the corresponding tense in Sanskrit. One who should attempt to learn Pali without reference to Sanskrit would find it difficult to understand how the words karoti, kubbati, kayirâ, kâhâmi, akâsi, kattum, could all spring from the same verbal root. It is only when the corresponding Sanskrit forms karoti, kurvate, kuryût,1 kartâsmi, akârshit, kartum, are put by their

1 Or more strictly from an older karyât not in use in classical Sanskrit. Kuhn, Beiträge, 105.

side, that the thread which connects them all becomes evident. Just so in the Romance languages, Italian so, sa, sapete, sanno, seppi, seem to have very little beyond the initial s in common, till it is perceived that they come from the Latin sapio, sapit, sapitis, sapiunt, sapui; thus, also, ho and ebbi can only be seen to be parts of the same verb when their origin from Latin habeo and habui is recognized. In Spanish there is the same difficulty, as will be seen by comparing hacer, hago, hice, hare, and hecho, with their Latin originals facere, facio, feci, facere habeo, and factum. In Portuguese, which seems to be the lowest and most corrupt Apabhrança of the Romance Prakrits, the changes are such as almost to defy analysis. For instance, ter, tenho, tinha, tive, terei, correspond to Latin tenere, teneo, tenebam, tenui, tenere habeo: also hei, houve, haja, to habeo, habui, habeam, and sou, he, foi, seja, to sum, est, fui, sit.1

The tenses of the Pali verb are eight in number.2 These correspond to the tenses of the Sanskrit verb, omitting the periphrastic or second future (lut), the benedictive (âçir lin), and the subjunctive (let). The present active is almost exactly the same as the Sanskrit as regards its terminations in the Bhû form, and the middle only differs, and even then very slightly, in the 1 and 2 plural. Thus―

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In this tense, as in many others, Pali is not very instructive, it clings too closely to the Sanskrit. It is, however, necessary to give a sketch of its forms, because they exhibit the first traces of that gradual change which has led to the modern conjugation. Even when the Pali conjugates a verb according to

1 Diez, Gramm. d. Romanischen Sprachen, vol. ii. p. 188.

2 The materials for this section are taken chiefly from Kuhn, Beiträge, p. 93 seqq., with some additions from Childers's Dictionary, and a few remarks of my own.

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