A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v3.c17.37

v3.c17.37

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. जगाम may mean “he went,” or, “he has gone,” but by the other system each of these two meanings has a phrase peculiar to itself, गतोऽस्मि meaning “he has gone,” and तेन गतं “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—