CHAPTER VII . THE VERB §i. The Verbal Root The roots of the Sanskrit language as enumerated by the Hindu grammarians comprise a list of some two thousand. Something like half of these are not attested in actual use, and since it is unlikely that many of them will ever turn up they may for all practical purposes be neglected. Of the rest a considerable number may be dismissed as being either reduplications (( didht -), stem forms (urnu-) } denominatives (arth- } etc.) or in some other respect not primitive. When allowance is made for these there remain somewhat over eight hundred roots, which form the basis not only of the verbal system, but also the larger part of the inherited nominal stems of the language. Chiefly owing to its antiquity the Sanskrit language is more readily analysable, and its roots more easily separable from accretionary elements than is the case with any other IE lan- guage. This is because the suffixes with which the present and aorist stems are formed, are normally kept out of the other forms of the finite verb, and from nominal derivatives : sunoti ' presses out ' : perf. susdva , susuma , fut. sosyati , part. pass. sutd-. Nevertheless even Sanskrit is not wanting in cases where suffixes whose primary function is the formation of the present stem, have become permanently attached to the root, and con- sequently appear throughout the conjugation of the verb. For instance from the present -prcchati * asks ', formed with the IE suffix -she- an extended root prch-jprach - is made which appears in the perf. paprdccha and elsewhere. Similarly Latin has posed , poposci ( <prk$hd). The simpler form of the root appears in Lat. precem (acc. sg.), procus and in Skt. prasna- ' question The root ksnu - ■ to sharpen ’ contains the ww-suffix which else- where forms the fifth present class. From a number of presents in which this suffix enlarged by the thematic vowel appears, extended root forms ending in -nv develop : pinv- * to fatten pres, pinvati , perf. 2 du. pipinvdthus (beside simple root pi- 289
