Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/30

 I. ALLGEMEINES UND SPRACHE. 4. VEDIC GRAMMAR. and gá-s, acc., beside gáv-as, nom. pl., but gáu-s, nom. sing., 'cow'; and dya-m, acc. sing., beside dyáv-as, nom. pl., but dyáu-s, nom. sing., 'heaven'. 20 V. Secondary shortening of ī ū ṛ. 29. Low grade: i u r.- Owing to the shift of the accent from its normal position in a word to its beginning, the low grade vowels ī ū ir år (=ř) are often further shortened to i ur in compounds and reduplicated forms. A pre-tonic syllable thus acquires a post-tonic position, where the force of the accent is weakest. It is the same cause which shortens final weak grade i and in the vocative singular; e. g. dévi, nom. deví; śváśru, nom. śvaśrúsª. This shortening often appears in: a. compounds ²: I. those in which the final member is derived with -ta- and -ti-, the accent being regularly thrown back on the first member ³: thus á-ni-ši-ta- 'restless', ní-si-tā- (TS. B.) 'night', from s 'lie'; prá-si-ti- 'onset', beside say-aka- 'missile'4; su-şu-ti- 'easy birth', beside súti-ka- (AV.) 'lying-in woman'; á-str-ta- 'unconquered', á-ni-str-ta- 'not overthrown', beside stir-ná-, from stř- 'strew'5; á-huti- 'invocation', otherwise -hu-ti- in sá-huti- 'joint invocation', devá-huti- 'invocation of the gods', and other compounds. 2. those in which the final member is a root in 76 or i with or without the suffix -t; e. g. dhi-ju- 'thought inspiring', beside jú- 'hastening', jū-tá- 'impelled'; very often -bhu-, beside bhū-, as in á-pra-bhu- ‘powerless', vi-bhi- 'mighty'; ni-yi-t- 'team', beside yu- 'unite' (as in yü-thá- 'herd'). 3. those in which the final member is formed with other suffixes; thus madhyán-di-na- 'midday', su-di-na- 'bright', beside di- 'shine'; su-su-mánt- 'very stimulating', beside su-tá- 'impelled'; also in tuvi-gr-á- and tuvi-gr-í- 'much devouring', beside sam-gir-á- (AV.) 'devouring', asr here = ??. 4. some Bahuvrihis (in which the first member is normally accented) ³; thus brhád-ri-⁹ 'possessing much wealth' (rái-); try-udh-án- 'having three udders', beside idh-an- 'udder'. b. reduplicated forms in which accentuation of the reduplicative syllable, especially in the third class and one form of the aorist, counteracts the normal accent of the verb; thus from dī- 'shine', are formed di-di-hi, 2. sing.impv., di-di-váms-, perf. part., di-di-vi- 'shining', beside di-paya- (causative) ¹ Cp. 23. 5 The secondarily shortened form of the an in- 2 The application of this shortening pro- past part. str-ta- is not found as cess becomes obscured, on the one hand | dependent word in the RV.; it first appears because the phonetically shortened vowel in later texts. has found its way into accented final 6 An example of the shortening of ī is members of compounds as being character- perhaps adhi-ksi-t- 'ruler”, kṣī- being according istic of the end of a compound; while, on the to J. SCHMIDT, Pluralbildung 419, the original other hand, īū ir úr (=ṛ) for the most part | weak form of the root; cp. WACKERNAGEL have remained unchanged, even when the 1, 83 b. accent has shifted, because of the influence of the uncompounded word; e. g. sú-suta- 'well- begotten', prá-suta- 'impelled'; á-kuti- 'inten- tion'; rtá-dhiti- 'truly adored'; prá-turti- 'onset'. 3 That this is the cause of the shortening is shown by the fact that the 7 of the inst. sing. of derivatives in -ti appears as i only when such words are compounded: e. g. prá-yukti 'with the team'. Cp. WACKERNAGEL 1, 84. 4 Cp. 27, note 5. 7 Cp. KRETSCHMER, KZ. 31, 397; WACKER- NAGEL I, 83 C. 8 See accentuation of compounds, 90. 9 Occurring only in the dat. sing. brhád- raye, beside ray-é, dat. of rái- 'wealth'. 1o On the shortening of the radical syllable in some verbs of the fifth and the ninth classes, ji-nó-și, beside ji-rá- 'lively', du-no-ti burns', beside dū-ná- (AV.); ju-na-ti 'impels', beside ju-tá-; pu-ná-ti 'purifies', beside pu-tá-, see WACKERNAGEL I, 85, note (bottom).