Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c8.76.1

c8.76.1

The terminations of the Present Tense are—3rd pers. sing. दि and दे in S'aur. and इ and उ in the principal Prâkrit, pl. न्ति and न्ते; 2nd pers. sing. सि and से, pl. इत्था and ह for which last the S'aur. has थ; 1st pers. sing. मि, pl. मो, मु, and म. Of these दे or ए, से and न्ते, of which the last is not given by Vararuchi, are remnants of the old Âtmanepada, and the first two are used after roots ending in अ only. With the exception of the first pers. pl. म and the 2nd pers. pl. इत्था, the terminations can readily be traced to the corresponding Skr. Parasm. The Sanskrit 2nd pers. pl. थ becomes थ in the S'aurasenî and ह in the Mahârâshtrî by the phonetic rules already noticed, and मो or its shortened form मु is the Skr. मः. In these points the primitive and derived languages perfectly agree; but म and इत्था are new terminations and were first used in Pâli, the latter however in the form of थ. The first is, as I have observed, transferred from the Imperative, Imperfect and other tenses, and थ is the Skr. स्थ 2nd pers. pl. of the root अस् To this is prefixed in the Prâkrit the usual augment इ, which मि and मु also take optionally. The terminations मि and मु are unknown to the Pâli. Other forms of the first pers. sing. and pl. made up by adding म्हि and म्ह or म्हो, as in करेम्हि, करेम्ह, गच्छम्ह, &c., occur in the plays, though the grammarians have not noticed them. These terminations are evidently the Skr. स्म 1st pers. sing. and स्मः or स्म pl.