Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c6.19

c6.19

The grammatical terminations which are oftener used than any particular words suffer the most by this process of decay, and after a time they are confused with each other or dropped away. When a language is reduced to this condition, it has to fall back upon the expedient with which it started, and tack on certain words or particles to its nouns and verbs to express the relations which the old terminations denoted, and thus the analytic state returns. But the old process goes on again, and these words in their turn assume the character of terminations. Sometimes along with a case-form there exists in the language another expression conveying the same sense. When the former goes out of use the latter takes its place, or sometimes the latter drives out the former. The modern vernaculars have had to resort to this process of reconstruction in a great measure, and, as in the older languages, it has already become difficult in several cases to trace the origin of the forms. For instance, in Sanskrit the termination which expresses future time is स्य, and when it is applied to the root दा to give, we have दास्यति he will give. This स्य is very likely a compound of the root अस् to be and या to go, so that the contrivance the early Aryans had recourse to to express futurity, was to attach to a root two others expressive of going to be; दास्यति therefore originally meant he goes to be giving, i. e. he does not give, but will give since he goes to do it. Now this दास्यति in the derived dialects becomes first दास्सति, then दास्सदि, दास्सइ, दासइ, दाहइ, दाइ and दे in order. Phonetic corruption has thus reduced this form to दाइ or दे, and that for the present tense I give has also assumed the same appearance. There is thus no distinction between them; wherefore to express future time our languages have had recourse to a variety of expedients which I shall endeavour to explain in their proper place. The Hindî, however, has hit upon the same that was used by our early ancestors, and distinguished futurity by adding to this shrunken form the past participle of गम् to go, which is गआ, changed to गा by combining the vowels, and thus देगा the form of the future, signifies literally, gone that he (may) give.