Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c8.74

c8.74

Conjugations.—All the Skr. conjugations, with the exception of the second in the case of a few roots ending in a vowel, have been brought over to the अ type, i.e., to the first, sixth, and the tenth. Some of the others have left a few traces; as, the fifth and the ninth their ण in such instances as सुण, किण, जाण, लुण पुण, धुण, both conjugations being, as you may remember, confounded in the Pâli, the third the root बीह—pres. tense बीहदि—the ह standing for भ, the fourth its य assimilated in a good many roots as उच्च, बुज्झ, जुज्झ, तुट्ठ, नस्स, &c., and the seventh its न् in रुन्ध and others. But you will see that to these forms अ is added and they are made roots ending in अ; while a great many have lost even such traces. In the Pâli, you will remember, the conjugational signs added to some of the roots are entire, as the न of the sixth and the नो of the fifth, and अ is appended to roots of the seventh conjugation only, न being inserted before the last consonant. But here the अ takes the place of the ending vowel of the signs of the fifth and other conjugations also, and so we have सुण, कीण, and बीह. Thus in the Prâkrits most roots end in अ. There are some ending in other vowels, such as ई and ऊ; but the rule of conjugation is the same for all, viz., to add the terminations to the root directly. There can be no consonantal root. Some forms, such as those of अस्, have come down from the parent language only phonetically changed; but these are not formed in the Prâkrit. They are really Sanskrit forms in what I have ventured to call a petrified condition. The roots ending in अ change it to ए optionally, i. e., they are conjugated according to the model of the first and of the tenth, as is the case to a great extent in the Pâli also. The distinction between the special and the general tenses is of course forgotten.