Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/308

 measure comes the present-stem मिमा, but the perfect-stem ममा ; and so on.

a. Irregularities of roots with initial consonants will be given below, 784.

783. For roots beginning with a vowel, the rules of reduplication are these:

a. A root with initial अ before a single final consonant repeats the अ, which then fuses with the radical vowel to आ  (throughout the whole inflection): thus, आद्  from √अद्  eat; and in like manner आज् , आन् , आस् , आह्. The root ऋ forms likewise throughout आर्  (as if from अर् ).

b. A root with इ or उ  before a single final consonant follows the same analogy, except in the strong forms (sing. act.); here the vowel of the radical syllable has, becoming ए  or ओ ; and before this, the reduplicating vowel maintains its independent form, and is separated from the radical syllable by its own semivowel: thus, from √इष्  comes ईष्  in weak forms, but इयेष्  in strong; from √उच् , in like manner, come ऊच्  and उवोच्. The root इ, a single vowel, also falls under this rule, and forms ईय् ( added before a vowel) and इये.

c. Roots which begin with vowels long by nature or by position do not in general make a perfect-system, but use instead a periphrastic formation, in which the perfect tense of an auxiliary verb is added to the accusative of a verbal noun (see below, chap. XV.: 1070 ff.).

d. To this rule, however, √ obtain (probably originally : 1087 f) constitutes an exception, making the constant perfect-stem  (as if from : above, a). Also are met with (RV.) and  from √, and  (V.) from √.

e. For the peculiar reduplication, belonging to certain roots with initial vowels, see below, 788.

784. A number of roots beginning with and ending with a single consonant, which in various of their verbal forms and derivatives abbreviate the  to, do it also in the perfect, and are treated like roots with initial  (above, 783 b), except that they retain