THE VERB 315 Possibly -ma was originally the perfect ending in view of the frequency of final -a in forms of that tense {veda, vdttha, vdda, 2 pi. vidd) . The innovation Skt : -masi t Av. - mahi , Av. -vahi resembles the Hittite development, but it is quite independent, and expresses no such distinction (P. mas and mast as opposed to Hitt. P, -meni, - went , S. men/wen). Hittite treats the 2 pi. in the same way ( tenjteni ) and here again Sanskrit expresses the difference in quite a different way (4ajtha). In all other lan- guages the distinction does not exist. Apart from lack of sup- port from other languages, the fact that the distinction be- tween t and th is used in the related dual endings for a totally different purpose (2 -thus, 3 -tas) makes it altogether unlikely that the difference between the two forms of suffix was from the beginning connected with the distinction between primary and secondary ending. In the middle the priority of the secondary endings is no less clear. The primary endings all terminate in -e, and the com- parative evidence shows that the extension of this -e to all the primary persons of the middle is a special Indo-Xranian de- velopment. In Greek, which is closest to Indo-Iranian in its verbal inflection, a corresponding -at is found only in the three persons of the singular and in the 3 plural. Elsewhere {-odov, -peda, ^odt) the endings are not characterised by this element, the same ending functioning as both primary and secondary. It is certain that in this respect Greek represents the more original state of affairs, and that in Sanskrit -make and -dhve (and the same applies to the dual endings) are new formations on the basis of mahi and dhvam which originally functioned indifferently as primary and secondary endings. Comparison between Sanskrit and Hittite confirms this, Hittite differs from Sanskrit more than Greek does, and it shares with Italic, Celtic and Tocharian an element r in the middle endings which Greek and Sanskrit agree in ignoring. Nevertheless there exist forms in the two languages which can be directly compared, and these are invariably secondary endings in Sanskrit : Hitt. 3 sg. pr. arta : cf. Skt. dkrta ; 3 pi. aranta : Skt. aranta ; 3 sg. esa : cf. Skt. dduha ; 2 pi. pahhaMuma : cf. Skt, dbharadhvam. The Hittite terminations all belong to the present (primary) system, as opposed to the identical forms in Sanskrit which belong to the secondary system. The formation of the middle endings, as is clear from a survey
