LESSONS 25 and 26:
2nd Class (The Root Class)

Verb Classes You Already Know: 1, 4, 6, 10

Now that we’re taking up a different kind of present stem (Lesson 25-31), it’s useful to recall what distinguishes the present stems you already know. How are the present stems of Classes 1, 4, 6, and 10 made? (If you don’t remember these rules of formation, review them until you do.)

• Class 1: penultimate light & all final guṇated + अ (भू — भो+अ = भव)
• Class 10: root strengthened until heavy // अय (चुर् — चोर्+अय = चोरय)
• Class 4: no strengthening + य (नृत् — नृ+य = नृत्य)
• Class 6: no strengthening + अ (तुद् — तुद्+अ = तुद)

There are at least 3 things to note here:

• All of these stems end in - अ (e.g., भव, चोरय, नृत्य, तुद)
• The sandhi with their endings is thus the same (e.g., नयेत् चोरयेत्)
• All of these stems have just one form (e.g., भव in every conjugation)

Because these stems all end in the ‘theme’ vowel, अ, they are called “thematic.”

Athematic Verbs

By contrast, the remaining verb classes are characterized by the fact that:

• Their stems do not end in -अ (e.g., √इ, 3rd sg. एति)
• Thus, the sandhi with their endings varies (e.g., √लिह् 2nd sg. लेक्षि)
• Each stem has two forms, strong and weak (e.g., √इ, str. ए, wk. इ)

These classes are called “a-thematic” because they lack the final -अ ‘theme’ vowel.

Its Strong and Weak Stems

Every athematic class takes its strong stem in:

• the Parasmaipada present and imperfect singular
• the Parasmaipada imperative 3rd singular
• the Parasmaipada and Ātmanepada 1st person, all numbers (these conjugations are remnants of the Vedic Subjunctive)
  

and its weak stem in:

• the rest

See the boxes in the handout below for the conjugations that take the strong stem (noting that the conjugations are traditionally ordered, beginning with the 3rd person and ending with the 1st person).

2nd Class Roots

In this, the so-called Root Class, the endings are added directly to the root, the strong stem of which is simply guṇated. All of the athematic paradigms in the handout below are 2nd class roots. Note the guṇated root vowels in the strong stems (वेद्, वे, ए, ऊर्णो) and that the root itself serves as the corresponding weak stem (e.g., विद्, वी, इ, ऊर्णु). Hence, the strong stem of √इ “to go,” would be guṇated (ए) and the weak stem would be the bare root (इ):

• strong: 3rd sg. pres. = ए + ति, एति “(he/she/it) goes,” etc.
• weak: 3rd pl. pres. = इ + अन्ति, यन्ति “(they) go,” etc.

Note that these athematic conjugations differ from the thematic ones you already know primarily in their stems (in not ending in -अ and having strong and weak forms). The endings, however, are almost identical. The few that differ are underlined in the athematic, e.g.,

• इ in Ā. thematic duals becomes आ in the athematic (इताम् vs. आताम्, etc.)
• the opt. -ई- affix becomes -या- in the Parasmaipada (स्-या-त्, etc.)

A couple of details to note:

• There is a predilection in internal sandhi for a stem’s final vowel--especially a monosyllabic stem’s final vowel—not to be swallowed up in sandhi. For example, in the Ā. pres. 3rd du. सू + आते = सुवाते, not *स्वाते. Here the stem vowel, ऊ, becomes उव्, i.e., its short form + its corresponding semivowel, before the ending, आते. See also P. impf. 3rd pl. अवियन्, which consists of अ-वी + अन्. This rule is not without exception, however: e.g., P. impv. 3rd pl. यन्तु — इ + अन्तु (not *इयन्तु).
  
• अस् is irregular in taking स् as its weak stem and अस् as its strong one (hence, P. opt. 3rd sg. स्-या-त्, etc.). However, since the guṇa of अ is अ, there would be no difference in strong and weak without this ‘irregularity.’
• This handout is based largely on Macdonell and Kale, to whom you should refer for a fuller treatment.
  
• As usual in these handouts, the terminations which end in स् and र् (e.g., तस्, उर्) have been left in their orginal form, though for the purposes of sandhi they will automatically revert to a visarga.

The 10 Verb Classes

We’ve just begun our foray into the athematic verb classes, so you needn’t worry about the details of the other classes just yet. But it may already be useful for you to see the big picture, especially for one point that makes mastering the present system relatively simple:

• The 10 verb classes break down into natural pairs

In order to highlight these pairs, they have been arranged side-by-side and color-coded in the table below:

Present System Verb Classes
Pres. Stem	-अ (Thematic)				Non-अ (Athematic)
Class	1 भू	10 चुर्	4 दिव्	6 तुद्	2 अद्	3 हु	5 सु	8 तन्	7 रुध्	9 क्री
Root	→ guṇa	→ heavy	as is		guṇated in strong		as is (+ strong/weak affixes)
Affix	अ	अय	य	अ	-	redup	नो/नु	ओ/उ	न/न्	ना/नी
Place	suffix				-	prefix	suffix		infix	suffix
Ex.	भू भवति	चुर् चोरयति	नृत् नृत्यति	तुद् तुदति	इ एति	हु जुहोति	सु सुनोति	तन् तनोति	रुध् रुणद्धि	क्री क्रीणाति

• 1 and 10: strengthened thematic classes
  
• 4 and 6: unstrengthened thematic classes
  
• 2 and 3: athematic, with guṇated strong stem
• 5 and 8: athematic, with guṇa in strong affix (नो/नु and ओ/उ)
• 7 and 9: athematic, with similar strong/weak affixes (न/न् and ना/नी)

These verb classes get their number (1st Class, 2nd Class, etc.) simply from the order in which they are listed in traditional grammars. For our purposes, it will be much more intuitive to always think of these classes in terms of the related pairs: 1/10, 4/6, 2/3, 5/8, 7/9.

Internal Sandhi

For the significant amount of internal sandhi exhibited by the 2nd Class roots in this chapter, as well as their irregularities, see the handout below: