Ātmanepada
Also known as: the middle voice
Introduction
All of the verbs we've learned so far are usually called parasmaipada. The word literally means "word for another," and it usually describes two kinds of verbs: verbs of activity (go, walk, wander, ask, stand, steal, find) and verbs used with an object (steal, push, emit). The traditional definition is that the result of the action does not go to the one who acts. So, they are "other-serving" verbs, or verbs for another.
I mention the word parasmaipada as a handy term for the verbs we've studied. In this lesson, we'll study verbs of a different kind. These verbs are called ātmanepada, meaning "word for the self." The traditional definition is that the "fruit of action," meaning the result, goes to the one who acts. Hence, they are "self-serving" verbs, or verbs "for the self."
We can think of the ātmanepada verbs as reflexive verbs since the result of the action, whatever it is, goes back to whatever acted in the first place. For illustration, consider the verb pac, meaning "cook," in the examples below.
पचति
pacati
He cooks (generally, or for somebody else).
पचते
pacate
He cooks (for himself).
Since these new terms are all quite long, I tend to abbreviate them: parasmaipada will be P and ātmanepada will be A. There are some verbs that are both P and A verbs; such verbs mean the same thing regardless of which is used.
Up above, I wrote that these verbs are called ātmanepada because the "fruit of action," meaning the result, goes to the one who acts. But the late Sanskrit scholar Michael Coulson disputes that this is actually the case. Except in a few instances,
he writes, the underlying implication is so blurred that it is not worth pursuing. It must rather be taken as a fact of the language that some verbs are found only in the parasmaipada, a few only in the ātmanepada …
Even if this is the case, it is certainly true that the verbs in ātmanepada are less likely to require an object.
The present tense
P and A verbs differ only in their endings. Both P verbs and A verbs are sorted into the ten verb classes, and both P verbs and A verbs form their stems according to the rules we've already seen. Again, the only difference between P and A verbs is in the endings that are used.
The ātmanepada endings are very similar to the parasmaipada endings. You can see this in the behavior of the verb labh, an a+ verb that means "obtain."
| लभ् | Singular | Dual | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Third Person | लभते labhate |
लभेते labhete |
लभन्ते labhante |
| Second Person | लभसे labhase |
लभेथे labhethe |
लभध्वे labhadhve |
| First Person | लभे labhe |
लभावहे labhāvahe |
लभामहे labhāmahe |
For comparison, here are the endings we've already studied:
| गम् | Singular | Dual | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Third Person | गच्छति gacchati |
गच्छन्ति gacchanti |
|
| Second Person | गच्छसि gacchasi |
||
| First Person | गच्छामि gacchāmi |
गच्छावः gacchāvaḥ |
गच्छामः gacchāmaḥ |
Apart from the change in the 1st person singular, these changes are regular and easy to remember.
Devanagari: Vowel Marking
Recall that Devanagari consonants are automatically followed by the a vowel sound. One such consonant is त (ta). This is true for all of the consonants in Devanagari. But how do we write ti or tu? How do we just say t? We do so by adding marks to the original त. These marks indicate the type of vowel sound that follows the consonant. All consonants use the same set of marks.
- देवनागरी
- IAST
- त
- ta
- ता
- tā
- ति
- ti
- ती
- tī
- तु
- tu
- तू
- tū
- तृ
- tṛ
- तॄ
- tṝ
- ते
- te
- तै
- tai
- तो
- to
- तौ
- tau
- तं
- taṃ
- तः
- taḥ
- त्
- t
- र्त
- rta
Note that the consonant r can be used like a vowel mark. It is always used this way when it appears in front of consonants.
The single stroke that makes ta become t is called the virāma. The other symbols do not have names, but we could just call them vowel marks for convenience. In Devanagari, vowels appear both as proper letters (like ई) and as vowel marks (like ी). But the vowel mark is used wherever possible. Even though each vowel has its own Devanagari letter, these letters are only used when a vowel starts a syllable. As you can imagine, this fact makes these letters quite rare.
Devanagari is one of many scripts that use consonants with a "default" vowel sound. Such a script is called an abugida. The word "abugida" comes from from Ge'ez, a Semitic language once spoken in Ethiopia.