Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c7.40

c7.40

We will now proceed to the examination of Pâli grammar. When after years of successive creative efforts, the language of our Âryan ancestors came to be so rich in all kinds of grammatical forms, as the Vedic or middle Sanskrit is, it became cumbrous, and the tendency set in, as we have seen, of dropping away some of them and rendering the grammar simpler. The duals of both nouns and verbs are unnecessary; the occasions for using them do not often present themselves. Hence, even in Sanskrit, their use must have been rare, and the Pâli, which, in its original form at least, must be taken to represent the current usage, has dropped them away altogether. But the manner in which the process of simplification is principally carried on is by the use of false analogies. Thus in Sanskrit, nouns ending in इ and उ of the neuter gender prefix न to the terminations of the vowel cases. But in Pâli it is added to those of the corresponding cases of masculine nouns also, as in मचुनो for मृत्योः in the passage before us. Similarly, from the analogy of neuter nouns in अ which form their nominative and accusative singular by adding म, the pronouns यद् and तद् come to have यं and तं for the corresponding cases, instead of the Sanskrit यद् and तद्. In Sanskrit, the conjugation that is very often used is the first in which अ is tacked on to the root in the special tenses, and it embraces a large number of the most ordinary roots. Here, in our passage, we find the analogy extended to the root हिंस् the present tense of which is in the mother dialect ordinarily formed by inserting न between the two letters, and adding the termination to the final (हिनस्ति 3rd person singular), and we have हिंसति. The root ज्ञा takes the form of जा in the present and other special tenses, and to it is added the conjugational sign ना, so that it becomes जाना. Now, this special form is generalized, and used in other tenses also, such as the Aorist and the Future. Thus, we have संजानिंसु, the Aorist 3rd person plural of ज्ञा, and in other places we find जानिस्सति as one of the forms of the Future. The special forms इच्छ, पश्य, शृण, बुध्य, and प्य are similarly generalized, the last four being phonetically changed to पस्स, सुण, बुज्झ, and पज्ज. In the same way in forming the causative of a root प or आप is added in Sanskrit to roots ending in आ and to a few others. It is extended to all roots in the Pâli, and thus we have तिकिच्छापेहि for चिकित्सय in the above. The termination त्वा of the absolutive is, in Sanskrit, replaced by य when a root has a preposition prefixed to it. But here no such distinction is observed, and त्वा is used in all cases. The operation of this law of false analogies is very extensive in the grammar of the Pâli and the later Prâkrits; and by its means new forms have been made up instead of those current in the primitive language. But side by side with these, we often find the latter also in corrupted by the usual phonetic laws, and having a sort of isolated existence, since they transgress the general rule that has newly come into operation. Thus we have जानिस्सति, पस्सिस्सति and लभिस्सति according to the law of analogy; but अस्सति from ज्ञास्यति, दक्खति from द्रक्ष्यति, and लच्छति from लप्स्यते are also in use. These three processes then, viz, the dropping away of forms not required for the expression of the current ordinary thought, the formation of new ones on the principle of analogy, and the preservation of the old ones in what may be called an isolated or petrified condition, have contributed to the formation of the grammar of this and the succeeding languages. With these preliminary observations, I will now hastily pass under review the principal points in the grammar of this dialect.¹⁰