पृष्ठम्:The Sanskrit Language (T.Burrow).djvu/४४

OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF SANSKRIT 37 voiced consonants and in final position, and from there its use was extended to cases where a vowel followed). Apart from such comparatively minor changes Classical Sanskrit pre- serves the basic phonetic structure of the Vedic language intact. The tendency to change is a good deal more noticeable in the morphology, and in Classical Sanskrit the wealth of forms pre- valent in the earlier language is considerably reduced. Nominal stem-formation shows a reduction in variety in the classical language, and with the disuse of certain suffixes whole classes of words so formed tend to become obsolete. For instance, the suffix -yu is productive in the Vedic language producing not only primary derivatives ( ydjyu - ' pious *) but also a number of secondary formations connected with denominative verbal steins (i devayu - ‘ devoted to the gods vdjayu - ' eager to win '). After the early Vedic period it ceases to be productive, and in consequence most of the words so formed went out of use. Only those that were common enough to survive as individual words remained : manyu- 1 anger ', dasyu - ‘ robber etc. Examples could be given of the same tendency over the whole field of nominal stem formation. In nominal composition the Vedic type of governing com- pound seen in examples like bharddvaja- 1 carrying off the prize etc., became early obsolete. In other respects we see not a diminution in nominal composition, but a steady extension in its use. The members of a compound are rarely more than two in number in the Veda, and the conditions under which they may be formed are limited. As the language advances greater freedom is observed both as to the number of members in a compound, and as to the type of syntactical construction allowed to be so expressed. Finally the stage is reached where compounds of any length may be formed almost without restriction, the whole character of the literary language being thereby changed. In this respect the later classical language goes far beyond anything that would have been countenanced by Panini. There is considerable simplification and modernisation in nominal declension. Older forms of inflection in a-stems such as instr. sg. in -a (viryd beside mryena) and nom. pi. nt. in -d (i bhuvand beside bhuvandni) are given up in favour of the new formations. At the same time some innovations of the Vedic language (nom. pi. m. -asas t instr, pi. -ebhis beside -is, - ai $ ) are discarded. One type of inflection of i- and w- stems ( dvyas ,