Athematic Verbs: Formation
The present stems of all verbs encountered so far have had one feature in common: they end in -a. In grammatical terminology, this -a is referred to as the ‘thematic’ vowel. Compare Class I √भृ ‘to carry’ –› भर-, Class IV √हृष् ‘to be excited’ –› हृष्य-, Class VI √लिख् ‘to write’ –› लिख- and Class X √चुर् ‘to steal’ –› चोरय-. In addition to these four classes of ‘thematic’ verbs, there are six classes of ‘athematic’ verbs. All athematic verbs share two features: As their name suggests, their present stems do not end in the thematic vowel -a. More noticeably:
Athematic verbs all display vowel gradation (or ablaut) of the stem.
- The strong stem, which is used in the active singular forms of present and imperfect and in some imperatives (–› Chapter 24), stands in guṇa.
- The weak stem, which is basically used everywhere else, stands in zero grade.
These features can be seen in the following example of a Class II verb:
The 1st PL consists of just the stem i- plus the ending -maḥ. In the 1st SG, the ending -mi is added to the stem e-, which is the guṇa of the root √इ.
Like thematic verbs, the various athematic verb classes differ in what is added to the root in order to form the present tense stem:
In Class II verbs, endings are added directly to the root. No additional affixes are used. Example: √इ ‘to go’: 1st SG एमि ‘I go’, 1st PL इमः ‘we go’
In Class III verbs, the root is reduplicated (see below on ‘Reduplication (Class III verbs)’). No other affixes are added. Example: √हु ‘to sacrifice’: 1st SG जुहोमि, 1st PL जुहुमः
In the remaining verb classes, the root vowel itself always remains in zero grade, but in each class a different affix is added to the root, and this affix then shows strong and weak forms:
Class V roots add the suffix -no- (strong)/-nu- (weak) after the root.
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