Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/235

 once in impv.). But in the perfect any characteristic consonant is wanting, and the ending is simply . In the Veda, the syllable, of problematic origin, is not infrequently added to both forms of the ending, making (rarely ) and . The forms in which this occurs will be detailed below, under the different formations; the addition is very rarely made excepting to persons of the first general conjugation.

b. The middle primary ending is, which belongs to the perfect as well as the present. In the subjunctive of the older language it is sometimes strengthened to. The secondary (and imperative) ending is (in RV., once ); and  is once met with in the imperative (570). In the Veda, the of all these endings is sometimes to be resolved into, and the ending becomes dissyllabic. As to the change of of these endings to, see above, 226 c.

550. Third person. a. The full primary ending is in the active, with  as corresponding middle. The middle secondary ending is, to which should correspond an active ; but of the only altogether questionable traces are left, in the euphonic treatment of a final  (207); the ending is. In the imperative, and  take the place of  and. The initial of all these endings is like that of  in the 1st sing., disappearing after the final  of a tense-stem.

b. Moreover,, , , , are all liable to be weakened by the loss of their nasal, becoming  etc. In the active, this weakening takes place only after reduplicated non--stems (and after a few roots which are treated as if reduplicated: 639 ff.); in the middle, it occurs after all tense-stems save those ending in.

c. Further, for the secondary active ending there is a substitute  (or : 169 b; the evidence of the Zend favors the latter form), which is used in the same reduplicating verbs that change  to  etc., and which accordingly appears as a weaker correlative of. The same is also used universally in the perfect, in the optative (not in the subjunctive), in those forms of the aorist whose stem does not end in, and in the imperfect of root-stems ending in , and a few others (621).

d. The perfect middle has in all periods of the language the peculiar ending, and the optative has the allied , in this person. In the Veda, a variety of other endings containing a as distinctive consonant are met with: namely,  (and ) and  in the present;  in the optative (both of present and of aorist);  in the perfect;, and  in aorists (and in an imperfect or two);  and  in the imperative;  in the imperfect of  (MS.). The three, , and are found even in the later language in one or two verbs (629).