332 THE VERB §9. The Future The stem of the future is formed by means of the suffix -syd-, or, with connecting vowel -i~, -isya- added to the gunated root, and it is inflected in precisely the same way as the thematic presents : ddsydti 4 he will give dhoksydti 4 he will milk bhavisydti 4 he will be karisydti 1 he will do etc, There are no simple rules by which the distribution of the two forms can be stated. In Iranian there exists a corresponding formation in ~$ya- (Av. vaxsyd 4 I will say '), but none corresponding to - isya The same formation appears in Lithuanian ; duosiu 4 I will give On the other hand the Greek future (Scl^oj, etc.) appears to be based on a simple so-stem. In the early period of the Sanskrit language the future tense is comparatively rare, as it is in the A vesta, the sense of the future being most usually expressed by the subjunctive, but it rapidly becomes more common. The future is a specialised type of present stem and it belongs with the various denominative formations in -yd-. It is capable of forming a preterite in the same way as the present stems proper. This formation functions as a conditional : yad evam ndvaksyo murdhd te vyapatisyat 4 If you had not spoken in this way, your head would have fallen off Only one example of the conditional is found in the Rgveda and it is never very com- mon during any period of the language. In addition to the ordinary future Sanskrit created a second or periphrastic future based on the agent nouns in -tar. In the third person the nom. sg., du. and pi. of such nouns functions as the second future without any addition : karta, kartdrau, kartdras . In the first and second persons forms of the verb ‘ to be J are added to the nom. sg. of agent noun, in the dual and plural as well as in the singular : kartdsmi, kartdsi ; kartdsvas ; kartdsmas: The function of the second future is to express the future in connection with some specified time : $vd vrastd 4 it will rain tomorrow etc. This type of future first begins to appear in the Brahmana period, and its use continues later, though it is never anything like as common as the first future. There was created also a corresponding middle, which, how r ever, is exceedingly rare, since it appears to have been current in the living language for only a very limited period. The special middle forms, which exist only for the first and second persons,
