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BRIEF NOTES
The Sanskrit passive-stem
Its sign is accented yd, added to the root. Since the root was
unaccented, its form was the weak one : bandh, badh-yd-te. The
grammars, in long succession, state that, before added ya, the root
undergoes changes: thus final r becomes ri; final i becomes i;
and so on.
These changes lose the aspect of irregularity, if we consider
that the ya of the passive, like the ya or iya of the gerundive, is
often dissyllabic, i-a, or (with the 'transition-semivowel' or
'disjunctive semivowel') iMa. Thus kr-iya-te becomes kr-iya-te;
ci-iya-te becomes ciyate. The a-roots (few in number, but of
frequent occurrence) weaken to *: pa, ply ate. Thus after the
powerful analogy of forms like piyate, ciyate, even roots in u
show m ; sru, sruyate.
To this it may be objected that 'the passive-sign is never
resolved into ia in the Veda.' So "Whitney, Grammar, 771g: cf.
Edgren, JA08 11, p. iv, Oct. 1878.— 'Is the passive ya ever
resolved into iaV Clearly, in view of the forms like mriyate,
hriyate, dhriyate, etc., it is no less a begging of the question to
answer this question with 'never,' than it is to say that these
forms prove that it is so resolved.
Accordingly let us look at the Prakrits and Pali. (See
Pischel's Prakrit Oram., § 535-; Geiger's Pali Gram., § 176.)
Here are found corresponding forms in abundance which show
the formative element ya as a true dissyllable : Prakrit, gamiodi,
gaccMadi, suniadi, jdniadi, sumariadi; Pali, sodhiyati (sodh-
yate), mdriyati, sariyati, and so on.
The gerundive (it may be added) is simply a verbal adjective.
Latin laudandus is properly 'laudable,' just as faciendus (and
facilis no less so) is simply 'do-able.' The Sanskrit gerundives
'formed with ya, tavya, and amy a,' are better treated all alike
as secondary verbal adjectives in ya (in the Veda often i-a: see
Edgren) or iya, from different primary verbal substantives : kar-
ya (kar-ia) from kara; kartav-ya from kartu; karan-iya from
karana. (Cf. Pischel, § 571; Geiger, § 199.)
„ , TT . . Charles E. Lanman
Harvard University
