Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/230

 moreover, the first persons are a remnant of the old subjunctive. And the aorist has also an optative, of somewhat peculiar inflection, usually called the precative (or benedictive).

534. The present, perfect, and future tenses have each of them, alike in the earlier and later language, a pair of participles, active and middle, sharing in the various peculiarities of the tense-formations; and in the Veda are found such participles belonging also to the aorist.

535. Tense-systems. The tenses, then, with their accompanying modes and participles, fall into certain well-marked groups or systems:

I. The present-system, composed of the present tense with its modes, its participle, and its preterit which we have called the imperfect.

II. The perfect-system, composed of the perfect tense (with, in the Veda, its modes and its preterit, the so-called pluperfect) and its participle.

III. The aorist-system, or systems, simple, reduplicated, and sibilant, composed of the aorist tense along with, in the later language, its "precative" optative (but, in the Veda, with its various modes and its participle).

IV. The future-systems: 1. the old or sibilant future, with its accompanying preterit, the conditional, and its participle; and 2. the new periphrastic future.

536. Number and Person. The verb has, of course, the same three numbers with the noun: namely, singular, dual, and plural; and in each number it has the three persons, first, second, and third. All of these are made in every tense and mode — except that the first persons of the imperative numbers are supplied from the subjunctive.