पृष्ठम्:The Sanskrit Language (T.Burrow).djvu/१३०

THE FORMATION OF NOUNS 123 §2. Root Nouns Root nouns are an ancient type very much in decline in the earliest recorded Indo-European languages. In Sanskrit they are preserved better, on the whole, than elsewhere. Such are pad- j pad- ‘ foot * : Lat. pes , pedis , v&c- * speech J : Lat. vox, raj - * king ' : Lat. rex . They are usually either masculine or feminine, but in the case of verbal roots functioning as action nouns they are normally feminine (dyut- f. ' brilliance etc.), The old neuter type of root noun (cf. Lat. mel,fel, etc.) is prac- ? ~ tically extinct. Of the few examples mention may be made of ^ sdm r welfare ' which is indeclinable, van - ' wood, tree ' which is probably neuter (like its extension vdna- n.) and as ‘ mouth ' : Lat. os. This type of stem was originally subject to the laws of apophony : Vrdd hi or Gu n a in the Nom . Sg^Gupa in Acc. Sg, and Nom.Pl .amd the weakened form of the root in th e other_ cases . This system is partially preserved in the case of some common nouns (n. sg, p&t , gen. sg. padas) but the general tend- ency is for it to be levelled out. In this levelling out any of the three grades may come to function throughout the declension, the weak form of the stem being normal in the case of verbal roots used as nouns ; (1) vac- ‘ speech gen. sg. vacds, (2) spas- ‘ spy nom. sg. spat, (3) fc- ' hymn nom. sg. fk } gen. sg, reds. Roots functioning as nouns may be used either 33 action or agent nouns lyn the "Tatte r case they ar e feminine) : druh- injurer (2) ‘injury'; dvts (1) ‘hatred', (2) ‘ enemy ' ; bhuj- (1) ‘ enjoyment (2) 1 enjoyer When used as the second member of compounds they have the latter function only. This type which has a moderate extension in the Vedic lan- guage, becomes more restricted later in accordance with the pre-existing tendency. That is to say with one exception — when such stems are used as the last memb erjpf comp ounds. In this case both in the Vedic and Classical language roots may be freely used as nominal stems. They are also used more widely in the Vedic language as infinitives of the type d rSd * to see ' than otherwise independently. Elsewhere as we shalFsee the V edic infinitive tends to preserve old nominal stems whi<; h h ave otherwise become extinct . Roots ending in short -i, -r cannot function as nominal