Pali Literature and Language c7.s2.t3.2

c7.s2.t3.2

§ 120. In verbal forms Pāli is still farther removed from the basic Sanskrit than in nominal flexion. The historical forms are on the whole well preserved, particularly in the older periods of the language. But the actual life of the language lies in the new formations, which were created in such numbers, either on the basis of analogy, or after existing types, that it is scarcely possible to lay down rules covering all the individual cases.—It is a prominent feature of Pāli distinguishing it off from Skr, that it has lost the dual.—The medium is also disappearing. Passive forms too have active endings already in the oldest period of the language. The Gāthā-language still shows, it is true, a considerable number of medial forms. But they are in part due to the exigencies of metre, and everywhere bear the stamp of archaism. They become rare already in the canonical prose, and rarer still in the non-canonical, in which they are confined only to a few fixed forms (c. g. Imp. 2. Sg. in -ssu, Pret. 3. Sg. in -ittha). The medial forms appear again in the later artificial poetry. The Part. Pres. Med. in -māna was productive in every period of the language. —As for the tempora, the perfect has almost completely disappeared, leaving but slight traces behind. Unlike Prākrit, Pāli has retained the conditional. Imperfect and aorist are no longer sharply distinguished between in Pāli. Both of them have coincided in the preterite which is mostly called “aorist”. The various periphrastic formations are of great importance they are originated by the combination of participles, gerunds or verbal substantives with the verbs “to be” or “to become”, or with other verbs of an indefinite meaning. They represent quite a characteristic feature of the language.—The modes are the same as in Sanskrit. The Gāthā-language has apparently still retained isolated forms of the Vedic subjunctive.—Another important feature is the predominance of *a*-stems in the present system. Their analogy has decided the character of many verbs which are athematic in Skr. It is no longer possible to set up a complete system of paradigms for the different 'conjugation-classes' as they are distinguished in Sanskrit. The present-stems of these classes will be discussed, as is proper, in connection with one chief paradigm, as supplement to it. Besides the expansion of the sphere of the *a*-flexion we have also to notice that of *e*-stems.—The preponderance of the present-stem is of particular importance. Tenses, as well as verbal nouns etc., which in Skr. are based directly on the root, may be derived in Pāli from the present-stem. This applies to preterite (aorist), future, past part. in *-ta*, future pass. part. in *-tabba*, infinitive in (*-tuye* and) *-tum*, and gerund in *-tvā*, *-tvāna* and *-ya* Moreover new passive and causative stems may be derived from present-stems. The innovated forms in all these cases appear side by side with the historical ones—sometimes rare in comparison with the latter, but occasionally even surpassing them in the frequency of use. In particular cases the process goes even further, when, for instance, an historically attested future or passive-stem is made the basis of further new formations.¹