A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v2.c12.97

v2.c12.97

It is obvious, however, that nouns of this class may be formed to any extent by a little exercise of the imagination. Every noun in fact formed by the suffixes ach, ghañ, or ap and the like, which merely add a vowel to the root, might be classed as a nomen agentis, and expected to be an oxytone. There is no reason why gárbha, “womb,” should not be considered as a noun of the agent, meaning the container (root ग्रह “to hold”), or kárna, “the ear,” as the piercer (root कर्ण् “to pierce”), or visha, “poison,” as the pervader, from its action in stealthily creeping into the blood (root विष “to penetrate”); and as a matter of fact the grammarians do so regard them all. The rule appears to be too subtle for general practical use, and the following list of oxytones of this class, mostly formed with अच्, which is said specially to form agents, will show that in a majority of instances the modern languages have not regarded these words as oxytones.