4 (ix) The bid of the future tense to grow into a system of conjugation proves abortive. The solitary modal form (subjunctive second person singular) in RV is karisyah. The later stages know only the conditional (i.e. the imperfect of the future): e.g. abhavisyat. i (x) The importance of the finite verb in the sentence is on the wane. The sentence tends to become nominal (i.e. without a finite verb). (xi) At the fourth stage the passive past parti- ciple (ending in ~dta) and the possessive from it (ending in -tavant) stand as rivals of the finite past tense. Thus : mayd krtam = aham akaravam. (xii) Adnominal adverbs (such as krte, artha-) are used increasingly as help words in the different oblique cases. (xiii) The prepositions tend to lose their free use and to become compounded as verbal prefixes. (xiv) The scheme of metres becomes more and more rigid but at the same time more and more prolific in variety. The language as a whole presents a homogeneous texture, and its general characteristics may be outlined as follows : — i. The phonemic system is simple. It com- prises the following speech sounds : Vowels a, i, u- short and long ; e y o— long. Diphthongs aU au — long. Sonants r— short and long; I— short. Semivowels y, v.
