338 THE VERB The s- Aorist Active, S. i anaisam, 2 dnaisis , 3 anaistt, D. 1 dnaisva , 2 anaistam , 3 dnaisidm, P. 1 dnaisma , 2 dnaista, 3 dnaisur . Middle, S. 1 anesi, 2 dnesthds, 3 dnesta, D. 1 dnesvahi , 2 awe- sathdm, 3 dnesdtam, P, 1 dnesmahi, 2 dnedhvam , 3 anesata. The s-aorist stem differs from other verbal stems in having the vrddhi grade throughout the active, in the dual and plural as well as in the singular. In the middle roots with medial vowel i, w, r appear in the weak form [acchitsi, drutsi , dsrksi) ; also roots in final r (tfArsi) and in the Veda certain roots with final nasal, e.g. dgasmahi from gam- and masiya opt. 1 sg. from man- (cf. Av. mahmaidi) . Elsewhere there is guna. The sub' junctive takes guna in both active and middle (stosdni, etc.) and this is extended to certain injunctive forms ( jesma ). Before terminations beginning with occlusive when the root ends in such the s of this aorist is elided according to the usual phonetic rule : araudhs-ta becomes arauddha, etc. This leads to some confusion between this aorist and the root aorist, but this is largely eliminated in the post-Vedic period by the disuse of the root aorist except in connection with very few roots. Phonetic decay also strongly affected the 2 and 3 sg. active, with the result that both the tense sign $ and the terminations frequently disappear ; abhar for abhdr-s-t and abhdr-s-s, simi- larly araik , asvait, etc. In the post-Vedic period these incon- venient and ambiguous forms are abandoned and their place is taken by new formations taking the connecting vowel -l- : anaistt , dcchaitsit , etc. The s-aorist and the other forms of sigmatic aorist are sharply distinguished from the other classes of aorist in that there are no present-imperfect stems formed in the same w^ay. There are indeed in the Veda certain isolated forms of the present made in this way (stuse, hise, krse ) as well as some anomalous formations containing .9 which cannot be referred to the s-aorist stem (i arcase f rhjase , ii grntse , punisd) but these have the appear- ance of being tentative formations which never developed very far rather than relics of an earlier system. The s-aorist is found in Greek etc.) and Slavonic (vesu, sluchu, etc,). In Latin s-aorist forms have coalesced with perfect forms to make one tense (perf, dixi, diixi, etc.). In Irish injunctive and subjunctive forms of the
