Sanskrit verbs[α] thus have an inflection system for different combinations of tense, aspect, mood, voice, number, and person.
[3][4] Verb conjugation in Sanskrit involves the interplay of five 'dimensions', number[β], person[γ], voice[δ], mood[ε] and tense[ζ], with the following variables:[5] periphrastic future, simple future Further, participles are considered part of the verbal systems although they are not verbs themselves, and as with other Sanskrit nouns, they can be declined across seven or eight cases, for three genders and three numbers.
Allowing for sorting reduplication and other anomalies, there remain somewhat over 800 roots that form the practical basis of the verbal system, as well as the larger part of the inherited nominal stems of the language.
Compared to kindred Indo-European languages, Sanskrit is more readily analysable in its morphological structure, and its roots are more easily separable from accretionary elements.
[8] Before the final endings — to denote number, person etc can be applied, additional elements may be added to the root.
[a] Since adding endings to the root is complicated by phonological changes, the tendency right from the Proto-Indo-European stage has been to use thematic processes instead.
The addition of the theme vowel serves to avoid complications due to internal sandhi; the large majority of the verbs in the language are thematic.
Among thematic verbs, some roots always get the accent, accompanied by a strengthening of the grade to guṇa or vṛddhi, while in others it always falls on the ending.
The general rule for variable-accent verbs is that in the indicative the stem has the accent and the guṇa grade in the three persons of the singular active, and that in the dual and plural of the active and the whole of the middle, the accent falls on the ending and the stem is in its weak form.
By the time of Classical Sanskrit, and especially in later literature, this distinction blurred and in many cases eventually disappeared.
Based on the treatment they undergo to form the stem, the roots of the Sanskrit language are arranged by the ancient grammarians in ten classes or gaṇas, based on how they form the present stem, and named after a verb typical to each class.
[28][29][30][g] The i sound in question is a phoneme i that appears in certain morphological circumstances for certain, lexically defined roots, regularly continuing Proto-Indo-European (PIE) laryngeals, as in *bʰéuH·tu·m > bháv·i·tum.
In the Aṣṭādhyāyī the synchronic analysis of the phenomenon is somewhat different: the i sound is treated as an augment[h] of the suffix that follows the root.
For the vast majority of verbs, conjugation can be made sufficiently clear with the first five of the following forms supplied:[37][38][39] The present system includes the present tense, the imperfect, and the optative and imperative moods, as well as some of the remnant forms of the old subjunctive.
[42][43] [vii] [viii] [ix] [x] [xi] [xii] [xiii] [xiv] [xv] [xvi] [xvii] [xviii] [xix] [xx] [xxi] [xxii] [xxiii] [xxiv] The imperfect takes the augment and secondary endings.
Known instances of weak stems from the Veda include avṛjan from √vṛj- in the plural active, adhithās from √dhā- in the singular middle, and various forms from √kṛ- .
From √pū- [U]: This small class is characterized by a reduplicated -siṣ- suffix, and is only used in the active voice; the s-aorist is usually used in the middle by verbs that take this formation.
From √yā- [V]: This formation is used with a small number of verbs ending in consonants which can form the cluster kṣ when an -s- is added.
Sanskrit verbs are capable of a second category of conjugation wherein the root takes on a modified or extended meaning.
[55] Sanskrit inherits a highly developed system of participles from Proto-Indo-European preserving some of the more archaic features of the parent language.
This can be seen in PIE *bheront-, from *bher- 'bear', Sanskrit bharan(t)-, Greek φέρον(τ)- (pheron(t)-), Latin feren(t)-, all meaning 'bearing, carrying'.
In Sanskrit, participles exist in all three voices — active, middle and passive, and in three of the tenses — present, perfect and future.
Sanskrit inherits two suffixes from Proto-Indo-European used to form verbal adjectives and the past passive participle: *-tó- and *-nó-.
[60][61][62] In Sanskrit thus the past passive participle is formed by adding "-tá-"[s], or "-ná-", to a root in its weakest grade when weakening is applicable (e.g. samprasāraṇa).
The past passive participle can usually be translated by the corresponding English past passive participle: When used with transitive (sakarmaka) verbs, the standard passive meaning can be achieved; the agent, if used, is placed in the instrumental case: Note that rākṣasa is the direct object (karman) of the verbal action expressed in √han "to kill" and the agent (kartṛ) of the same action, Rāma, occurs in the instrumental case.
This is a linguistic innovation within the Indo-Aryan branch, and the first purely participial formation of this character appears in the Atharvaveda.
Later on this formation (-tá·vant- or -ná·vant-) comes to be used independently, with the copula understood, in place of an active preterite: Unlike the past participles, the present participle is formed from the present stem of the verb, and is formed differently depending on whether the verb is parasmaipada or ātmanepada.
The ending -tum, similar to the Latin supine,[78][79] is added to the root which bears the accent with its vowel guṇated.
[82][83] The following table is a partial listing of the major verbal forms that can be generated from a single root.
Taking into account the fact that the participial forms each decline in seven cases in three numbers across three genders, and the fact that the verbs each conjugate in three persons in three numbers, the primary, causative, and desiderative stems for this root when counted together have over a thousand forms.