William Dwight Whitney

“ In the looseness of unlimited and fortuitous combination, especially in the later language, it is by no means rare that a word in composition has an independent word in the sentence depending upon or qualifying it alone, rather than the compound of which it forms a part. ”

“ No general laws governing the place of the accent are to be recognized; each suffix must in this respect be considered by itself.
a. In connection with a very few suffixes is to be recognized a certain degree of tendency to accent the root in case of a nomen actionis or infinitival derivative, and the ending in the case of a nomen agentis or participial derivative: see the suffixes a, ana, as, an, and man, below, where the examples are considered. Differences of accent in words made by the same suffix are also occasionally connected with differences of gender: see the suffixes as and man. ”

“ By the term “classical” or “later” language, then, as constantly used below in the grammar, is meant the language of those literary monuments which are written in conformity with the rules of the native grammar: virtually, the whole proper Sanskrit literature. For although parts of this are doubtless earlier than Pāṇini, it is impossible to tell just what parts, or how far they have escaped in their style the leveling influence of the grammar. ”

“ Notwithstanding the inanity of no small part of their contents, the Brāhmaṇas are of a high order of interest in their bearings on the history of Indian institutions; and philologically they are not less important, since they represent a form of language in most respects intermediate between the classical and that of the Vedas, and offer specimens on a large scale of a prose style, and of one which is in the main a natural and freely developed one — the oldest and most primitive Indo-European prose. ”

“ To treat the language throughout as an accented one, omitting nothing of what is known respecting the nature of the Sanskrit accent, its changes in combination and inflection, and the tone of individual words — being, in all this, necessarily dependent especially upon the material presented by the older accentuated texts. ”

“ Thus the final i-vowel of a word remains i before an initial vowel; that of a stem maintains itself unchanged before an ending; and an ending of derivation — as ya, tya — has i instead of y. Such cases will be noticed in more detail later. The constancy of the phenomenon in certain words and classes of words shows that this was no merely optional interchange. Very probably, the Sanskrit y had everywhere more of an i-character than belongs to the corresponding European sound. ”

“ Native Hindu usage, in manuscripts and inscriptions, treats the whole material of a sentence alike, not separating its words from one another, any more than the syllables of the same word: a final consonant is combined into one written syllable with the initial vowel or consonant or consonants of the following word. It never occurred to the Hindus to space their words in any way, even where the mode of writing admitted such treatment ”

“ The variety of consonants that would ever come at the end of either an inflected form or a derivation stem in the language is very small: namely, in forms, only t (or d) , n, m, s; in derivative stems, only t, d, n, r, s (and, in a few rare words, j) . But almost all consonants occur as finals of roots; and every root is liable to be found, alone or as last member of a compound, in the character of a declined stem.
140. All the vowel sounds, both simple and diphthongal, may be sounded at the end of a word. ”

“ This is really the adverbially used accusative (with adverbial shift of accent: below, 1111 g) of the suffix vant ( 1233 f) , which in the Veda makes certain adjective compounds of a similar meaning: thus, tvā́vant like thee, mā́vant of my sort, etc.
1108. By the suffix sāt are made from nouns quasi-adverbs signifying in or into the condition or the possession of what is indicated by the noun; they are used only with verbs of being, of becoming, and of making: namely, oftenest kṛ and bhū, but also as, gam, yā, and nī (and, according to the grammarians, sam-pad) . ”

“ The suffixes of primary derivation are ईयस् īyas (or ईयांस् īyāṅs) for the comparative and इष्ठ iṣṭha for the superlative. The root before them is accented, and usually strengthened by gunating, if capable of it — or, in some cases, by nasalization or prolongation. They are much more frequently and freely used in the oldest language than later; in the classical Sanskrit, only a limited number of such comparatives and superlatives are accepted in use; and these attach themselves in meaning for the most part to other adjectives from the same root, which seem to be their corresponding positives ”

“ In the Veda, the present tense has, besides its indicative inflection, a subjunctive, of considerable variety of formation, an optative, and an imperative (in 2d and 3d persons) . The same three modes are found, though of much less frequent occurrence, as belonging to the perfect; and they are made also from the aorists, being of especial frequency from the simple aorist. The future has no modes (an occasional case or two are purely exceptional) . ”

“ Modes of the perfect belong only to the Vedic language, and even are seldom found outside of the Rig-Veda.
a. To draw the line surely and distinctly between these and the mode-forms from other reduplicated tense-stems — the present-stem of the reduplicating class, the reduplicated aorist, and the intensive — is not possible, since no criterion of form exists which does not in some cases fail, and since the general equivalence of modal forms from all stems (582) , and the common use of the perfect as a present in the Veda (823) , deprive us of a criterion of meaning. ”

“ The Hindu grammarians reckon a tenth class or cur-class, having a class-sign áya added to a strengthened root (thus, coráya from √cur) , and an inflection like that of the other a-stems. Since, however, this stem is not limited to the present-system, but extends also into the rest of the conjugation — while it also has to a great extent a causative value, and may be formed in that value from a large number of roots — it will be best treated in full along with the derivative conjugations (chap. XIV., 1041 ff.) . ”

“ A considerable number of j-roots are not placed in circumstances to exhibit the distinction; but such roots are in part assignable to one or the class on the evidence of the related languages. The distinction appears, namely, only when the j occurs as final, or is followed, either in inflection or derivation, by a dental mute (t, th, dh) , or, in noun-inflection, by bh or su. In derivation (above, 216) we find a g sometimes from the mṛj-class: thus mārga, sárga, etc. ”

“ The whole, too, may be called so far an artificial literature as it is written in a phonetic form (see grammar, 101 a) which never can have been a truly vernacular and living one. Nearly all of it is metrical: not poetic works only, but narratives, histories (so far as anything deserving that name can be said to exist) , and scientific treatises of every variety, are done into verse; a prose and a prose literature hardly has an existence (the principal exceptions, aside from the voluminous commentaries, are a few stories, as the Daçakumāracarita and the Vāsavadattā) . ”

“ The roots, on the other hand, showing a variation between ṛ and ar (rarely ra) as weak and strong forms will be here written with ṛ, as by the native grammarians, although many European authorities prefer the other or strong form. So long as we write the unstrengthened vowel in vid and çī, in mud and bhū, and their like, consistency seems to require that we write it in sṛj and kṛ also—in all cases alike, without reference to what may have been the more original Indo-European form. ”

“ The vocative (unless by accent: 314) is distinguished from the nominative only in the singular, and not quite always there. In a-stems, it is the unaltered stem, and so also in most consonant-stems; but neuters in an and in may drop the n; and the oldest language has sometimes a vocative in s from stems in nt and ṅs. Stems in ṛ change this to ar. In masc. and fem. i- and u-stems, the case ends respectively in e and o; in neuters, in the same or in i or u. Stems in ā change ā to e; derivative ī and ū are shortened; radical stems in long vowels use the nominative form. ”

“ The nasals are more freely combinable: a nasal may either precede or follow a mute of either kind, or the sonant spirant h; it may also follow a surd aspirant (sibilant) ; no nasal, however, ever precedes a sibilant in the interior of a word (it is changed instead to anusvāra) ; and in external combination their concurrence is usually avoided by insertion of a surd mute.
d. A semivowel has still less sonantizing influence; and a vowel least of all: both are freely preceded and followed by sounds of every other class, in the interior of a word. ”

“ The accent of the compound is that of the final member. This is not on so large a scale the case as the preceding; but it is nevertheless quite common, being found in many compounds having a verbal noun or adjective as final member, in compounds beginning with the numerals dvi and tri or the prefixes su and dus, and elsewhere in not infrequent exceptions.
d. The compound takes an accent of its own, independent of that of either of its constituents, on its final syllable (not always, of course, to be distinguished from the preceding case) . ”

“ Another usual method (beginning in the Brāhmaṇas) of forming the odd numbers above 100 is to qualify the larger number by an adjective derived from the smaller, and identical with the briefer ordinal (below, 487) : thus, dvādaçáṁ çatám, 112 (lit'ly a hundred of a 12-sort, or characterised by 12) ; catuçcatvāriṅçáṁ çatám 144; ṣaṭṣaṣṭáṁ çatám 166.
480. To multiply one number by another, among the higher or the lower denominations, the simplest and least ambiguous method is to make of the multiplied number a dual or plural, qualified by the other as any ordinary noun would be ”

“ Strengthening in derivation does not stand in any such evident connection with accent as strengthening in conjugation; nor can any general rules be laid down as to its occurrence; it has to he pointed out in detail for each suffix. So also with other vowel-changes, which are in general accordance with those found in inflection and in the formation of tense- and mode-stems. ”

“ All dates given in Indian literary history are pins set up to be bowled down again. Every important work has undergone so many more or less transforming changes before reaching the form in which it comes to us, that the question of original construction is complicated with that of final redaction. It is so with the law-book of Manu, just mentioned, which has well-founded claims to being regarded as one of the very oldest works of the proper Sanskrit literature, if not the oldest (it has variously been assigned, to periods from six centuries before Christ to four after Christ) . ”

“ These classes have in common, as their most fundamental characteristic, a shift of accent: the tone being now upon the ending, and now upon the root or the class-sign. Along with this goes a variatior in the stem itself, which has a stronger or fuller form when the accent rests upon it, and a weaker or briefer form when the accent is on the ending these: forms are to be distinguished as the strong stem and the weak stem respectively (in part, both have been given above) . The classes also form their optative active, their 2d sing. ”

“ The Hindu grammarians call the different sounds, and the characters representing them, by a kāra (maker) added to the sound of the letter, if a vowel, or to the letter followed by a, if a consonant. Thus, the sound or character a is called akāra; k is kakāra; and so on. But the kāra is also omitted, and a, ka, etc. are used alone. The r, however, is not called rakāra, but only ra, or repha snarl: the sole example of a specific name for an alphabetic element of its class. The anusvāra and visarga are also known by those names alone. ”

“ The Hindus classify as simple roots a number of derived stems: reduplicated ones, as dīdhī, jāgṛ, daridrā; present-stems, as ūrṇu; and denominative stems, as avadhīr, kumār, sabhāg, mantr, sāntv, arth, and the like. These are in European works generally reduced to their true value.
c. A number of roots ending in an ā which is irregularly treated in the present-system are written in the Hindu lists with diphthongs — e or āi or o; here they will be regarded as ā-roots (see 251) . The o of such root-forms, especially, is purely arbitrary; no forms or derivatives made from the roots justify it. ”

“ The general principle of reduplication is the prefixion to a root of a part of itself repeated — if it begin with consonants, the initial consonant and the vowel; if it begin with a vowel, that vowel, either alone or with a following consonant. The varieties of detail, however, are very considerable. Thus, especially, as regards the vowel, which in present and perfect and desiderative is regularly shorter and lighter in the reduplication than in the root-syllable, in aorist is longer, and in intensive is strengthened. ”

“ With regard to the use or non-use of the auxiliary vowel i before the sibilant, there is a degree of general accordance between this tense and the other future and the desiderative; but it is by no means absolute, nor are any definite rules to be laid down with regard to it (and so much the less, because of the infrequency of the two latter formations in actual use) : between this and the aorist (s-aorist on the one side, or iṣ-aorist on the other) , any correspondence is still less traceable. ”