पृष्ठम्:The Sanskrit Language (T.Burrow).djvu/२०७

THE FORMATION OF NOUNS 201 with vrddhi of the type diru-, nibht -, were originally more general, and that forms of the type *mdnu- existed in paradig- matic alternation with mdnu-, etc. ; and that when the guna grade, mdnu-, etc., was eventually generalised in the majority of the simple formations, there remained a class of thematic deri- vatives formed on the basis of obsolete vrddhied stems, i.e. mdnava- beside mdnu-. This nucleus showing the alternation guna in the primary and vrddhi in the secondary derivative, would then be the starting point of the system in which vrddhi came to be widely used in the formation of secondary deriva- tives. This means that derivational vrddhi must have appeared first in the case of the vowel d, and that the use of ai and au in these formations must be due to analogy, for the reason that ai and au do not occur in primary nominal derivation. There is evi- dence that this was the case, since in Iranian, which reflects this process in its early beginnings, d is the only vrddhied vowel which appears in this type of derivative. Forms such as Oraetaona- n. pr. (cf. Skt. traitdnd-) and haomanayha- ‘ kindness ’ (cf. Skt. saumanasd-) which have been quoted as parallels to the Sanskrit ai and au vrddhi, contain not vrddhi but guna. Since the words from which they are derived had by nature a guna as well as a weak grade ( trai-jtri - ' 3 ’ ; ( a)sau-/(a)su - 4 good ') there is no reason why the above formations should not be straight derivatives from this (like tretd ' triad '). It is in accordance with secondary origin of the ai and au vrddhi that cases of derivational vrddhi with these vowels are much rarer in the Rgveda than those containing d. On the whole the system has been fully built up by the time of the Rgveda. The main types are in existence, but examples do not occur with the same frequency as in the later language . There exist also a greater number of formations of the older type, in which the secondary suffixes are added without vrddhi, e.g. vdpusa- beside vdpusa- and visya- beside vaisya -. In the later period the popularity of the vrddhied forms rapidly in- creases, and it develops into one of the most characteristic features of the Sanskrit language. § 21 . Grammatical Gender In common with the other IE languages all Sanskrit nouns are classified according to the three genders. Masculine, Fern-