पृष्ठम्:The Sanskrit Language (T.Burrow).djvu/१८४

I78 THE FORMATION OF NOUNS action nouns in -i were originally common. Further evidence comes from another quafter. At a time when these formations were readily made, the whole category of s-neuters was incor- porated in the verbal conjugation, and served to form passive aorists of the third person singular. As such they are well re- presented in Indo- Aryan and Iranian : tdri, jdni , darsi , pAdi, sddi ; with augment dkdri, etc. Similarly Av. srdvi ‘ is heard etc. The accent is on the root as regularly in the case of neuter stems. Neuter w-stems remain more common than neuter t-stems. They are regularly accented on the root and not uncommonly have vrddhi : mddhu ‘ honey ' (Gk. pid v t AS. medu), vdsu 1 property Ayu- ' life ' (RV. 1,89,9 an d 3>49> 2 * restored from evidence of metre) , jinu~ ‘ knee ' (Gk. yow, Lat. genu, Hitt, genu), diru ‘ wood ' (Gk. Sopu, Hitt, taru) sanu ‘ summit, top ' (also masc.), danu ‘ moisture 7 (also fem.), pdsu ‘ domestic animal ' (RV. 3. 53, 23, Goth, faihu , Lat. pecu ; elsewhere transferred to the masculine and accented on the suffix), imdsru 1 beard asm ‘tear' (Toch. A. akru-nt pi.), jatu 'gum' (AS. cwidu ), jdtru ' collar-bone * (also jatru- masc.), tdlu 1 palate trap a 4 tin ’, ydiu ' sexual embrace snayu ‘ sinew titail ‘ sieve The u ~ stem could serve throughout as the basis of inflection. This type of neuter inflection is seen in mddhu ' honey gen. sg. mddhvas and vdsu r wealth ' gen. sq. vdsvas. The same type appears in Gk. yowos, Sovpos, with the more ancient termina- tional accent in the gen. sg. which Sanskrit has abandoned for the fixed radical accent as in other kinds of neuters (gen. sg. ndmnas , vdcasas, etc.). The old terminational accent is seen in gen. sg. pa&vds but it has come to be associated with an altered type of stem. The old IE neuter pdku (Lat. pecu , etc.) is pre- served in one instance in the Rgveda (see above) as pdsu , show- ing that the change is of recent origin. The change of gender in the usual fiasu- is due to natural gender. The change of accent which has also occurred is due to the old terminational accent of pa£vds gen. sg. f etc. Since the normal neuters have adopted the fixed radical accent, the only stems in which there is commonly alternation of accent from stem to suffix in declension are suffixally accented masculines with reduced grade of suffix in the weak cases : nom. sg. pita , dat. sg. pitre , nom. sg. Pusa f gen. sg. Pusnds , etc. On this analogy it is easy to see how a suffixally accented paivas (after the style of the old neuters) still pre-