Distant Past Tense Verbs
Introduction
The distant past tense
The perfect uses both strong and weak stems. These stems are created in more complicated ways than the stems we've seen before.
Extra Rules for the Reduplication
ṛ, ṝ, and ḷ will all become a.
कृ → चकृ
kṛ → cakṛ
तॄ → ततॄ
tṝ → tatṝ
कॢप् → चकॢप्
kḷp → cakḷp
Roots that start with a and ā use a for the reduplication, which merges with the root to form ā.
अद् → आद्
ad → ād
आप् → आप्
āp → āp
Roots that start with i- use i for the reduplication, which merges with the root to form ī. Exception: if the i- in the root has been strengthened, then the reduplication becomes iy.
इ + इष् → ईष्
i + iṣ → īṣ
इ + एष् → इयेष्
i + eṣ → iyeṣ
Roots that usually take saṃprasāraṇa reduplicate as follows: roots that start with va use u, and roots that start with ya use i.
वच् → उवच्
vac → uvac
यज् → इयज्
yaj → iyaj
Endings for the strong stem
Roots ending in vowels
A final vowel sound is strengthened based on the "person" :
- 3rd person: strong
- 2nd person: medium
- 1st person: medium or strong
कृ → चकृ → चकार
kṛ → cakṛ → cakāra
do → did → He did.
कृ → चकृ → चकर
kṛ → cakṛ → cakar
do → did → You did.
कृ → चकृ → चकार, चकर
kṛ → cakṛ → cakāra, cakara
do → did → I did.
But some roots don't strengthen this way. Roots ending in ā, e, ai, or o become au.
गै → जगै → जगौ
gai → jagai → jagau
धा → दधा → दधौ
dhā → dadhā → dadhau
One exception is the root hvā, which also appears as hve. This root is treated as hū, and it strengthens just like kṛ above.
Roots ending in consonants
Roots are strengthened to guṇa if possible.
बुध् → बुबोध्
budh → bubodh
इष् → इयेष्
→
जीव् → जिजीव्
jīv → jijīv
Recall that not all roots can be strengthened to guṇa. We studied this restriction in Fundamentals, in the lesson on thematic verbs:
Some vowels will never undergo a guṇa change. The root that contain this type of vowels has two properties:
- The root ends in a consonant.
- If we remove the last consonant of the root, the result is a heavy syllable.
When both of these things are true, the guṇa rule does not apply.
But for roots that contain a followed by just one consonant, the a becomes ā.
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Weak Stem
Final i, ī, u, ū, ṝ
When in front of endings that start with the vowels, the final vowel of the root undergoes these changes:
- If it follows just one consonant: final i and ī become y, and final ṛ becomes r.
- If it follows more than one consonant: final i and ī become iy, and final ṛ becomes ar.
- In all circumstances: final u and ū become uv, and final ṝ becomes ar.
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Contraction
For some roots, the reduplication will collapse into the main root, forming one syllable. For the roots that do so, all of the following are true:
- The root vowel is a.
- The root only has two consonants: one before the vowel, and one afterward (for example, pat).
- The reduplication starts with the same consonant as the root (pat, but not vad).
The root vowel is changed from a to e.
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But for five verb roots (jan, khan, gam, ghas, han), the stem is weakened by removing the root vowel completely:
जगन् + ए → जज्ञे
jagan → jajñe
जखन् + ए → जख्ने
jakhan → jakhne
जगम् + ए → जग्मे
jagam → jagme
जघस् + ए → जक्षे
jaghas → jakṣe
जघन् + ए → जघ्ने
jaghan → jaghne
Saṃprasāraṇa
These roots take saṃprasāraṇa: vac, vad, vap, vas, vah, yaj, vyadh, grah, svap
उवच् + ए → ऊचे
uvac + e → ūce
इयज् + ए → ईजे
iyaj + e → īje
वव्यध् + ए → वविधे
vavyadh + e → vividhe
जग्रह् + ए → जगृहे
jagrah + e → jagṛhe
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