Appendix:Hindi verbs

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Main category: Hindi verbs

Types

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In Hindi, there are only two main verb types: regular and irregular.

Regular

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Regular verbs all follow the same pattern. Most verbs are regular, the exceptions being some two-syllable words with stems ending in vowels.

Vowel shortening

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Verbs with stems ending in a long ū or ī regularly shorten this vowel to u or i, respectively, when the ending begins with a vowel.

Irregular

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There are two types of irregular verbs: those with a different polite second-person imperative, and the rest.

Irregular Imperative

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Some words deviate from the regular polite imperative -īe, -īye, instead using jīe, jīye. In some words, the stem also changes.

Others

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Some words undergo other changes. The most prominent one is होना (honā, to be), which seemingly follows no pattern, retaining the old Sanskrit and Prakrit conjugations.

Causatives

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Most verbs have two causative forms, a first-level and a second-level. The first-level causative is either a transitive form of the original verb or of the form "to cause X". The second-level causative takes this one step further, having the meaning "to cause X to do Y". Here are some examples of causatives:

Origins

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Some elements of the Hindi conjugation system descent from parts of the older, complicated Sanskrit conjugation system. The "enlarged form" refers to the usage of Indo-Aryan pleonastic suffixes (also called extensions), most notably Middle Indo-Aryan -𑀓- (-ka-). These seem to have little semantic content of their own; rather, they serve to disambiguate terms that have collapsed into one following sound changes from OIA to MIA.

  • The infinitive originates from an enlarged form of the Sanskrit verbal noun in -अन (-ana).
Sanskrit चरण (caraṇa) → Hindi चलना (calnā)
Sanskrit कथन (kathana) → Hindi कहना (kahnā)
Sanskrit वसन (vasana) → Hindi बसना (basnā)
  • The present participle originates from an enlarged form of the Sanskrit present participle in -अत् (-at) (singular accusative -अन्तम् (-antam)).1
Sanskrit चरत् (carat) → Hindi चलता (caltā)
Sanskrit भरत् (bharat) → Hindi भरता (bhartā)
Sanskrit कथयत् (kathayat) → Hindi कहता (kahtā)
  • The perfect participle originates from an enlarged form of the Sanskrit past participle in -इत (-ita) or -त (-ta). The linking Hindi -y- between a stem ending in a vowel and the perfect participle ending is a reflex of the Sanskrit -t-; otherwise, this -t- was lost.
Sanskrit चरित (carita) → Hindi चला (calā)
Sanskrit कृत (kṛta) → Hindi किया (kiyā)
Sanskrit गत (gata) → Hindi गया (gayā)
Sanskrit दित (dita) → Hindi दिया (diyā)
  • The Hindi subjunctive, also the base of the future tense, originates from the Sanskrit indicative present.2
Sanskrit चरामि (carāmi, I walk) → Hindi चलूँ (calū̃)
Sanskrit चरसि (carasi, You walk) → Hindi चले (cale)
Sanskrit चरति (carati, He/she/it walks) → Hindi चले (cale)
Sanskrit चरथ (caratha, You all walk) → Hindi चलो (calo)
  • The Hindi future tense derives from the above with -गा (-gā), a simplified form of the enlarged Sanskrit गत (gata) (whence Hindi गया (gayā))
  • The Hindi imperative singular (i.e. for तू (), least respectful) derives from the Sanskrit second person singular active imperative.
Sanskrit चर (cara) → Hindi चल (cal)
  • The imperative plural (i.e. for तुम (tum), mid-respectful) derives from the Sanskrit second person plural active imperative.
Sanskrit चरथ (caratha) → Hindi चलो (calo)
  • The most respectful imperative (i.e. for आप (āp)) derives from the Sanskrit third-person present passive form, ending in -यते (-yate). In a handful of common words, the -y- was geminated before the Prakrit-stage, leading to -jj- in Prakrit and thus -(ī)ji(y)e in Hindi (as in कीजिए (kījie) or दीजिए (dījie)).
Sanskrit चर्यते (caryate) → Hindi चलिए (calie), Hindi चलिएगा (caliegā)
  • The Sanskrit third-person imperative passive ending -यतु (-yatu) regularly gives Hindi -इयो (-iyo), a less common imperative ending. The infinitive as an imperative is a usage seen since the Apabhramsa time.
Sanskrit चर्यतु (caryatu) → Hindi चलियो (caliyo)

Notes:

  1. The Hindi -t- cannot go back to Sanskrit intervocalic -t-, since that would have left no trace in Hindi (e.g. the perfect participle). Hence, it must go back to Sanskrit -nt- (cf. ਕਹਿੰਦਾ (kahindā), cognate to कहता (kahtā), retaining the original nasal).[1]
  2. The origin of Hindi चलें (calẽ) for the first-person and third-person plural is less clear. Probably, the Apabhramsa first-person plural -ahuṁ ending was later replaced by the third-person plural ending -ahiṃ. The Apabhramsa third-person plural -ahiṁ, in turn, was formed from the third-person singular -ai on the analogy of the first-person plural -ahuṁ and first-person singular -auṁ. Hence, the Hindi forms do not originate clearly from Sanskrit चरामः (carāmaḥ, We walk) and चरन्ति (caranti, They walk).[2]

References

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  1. ^ Masica, Colin P. (1993) The Indo-Aryan Languages (Cambridge Language Surveys), Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 281
  2. ^ Oberlies, Thomas (2005) A Historical Grammar of Hindi, Grazer Vergleichende Arbeiten, →ISBN

See also

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