6. Ākhyātakappa (Verb chapter)

Note

ākhyāta (“what is declared”) is the finite verb. The first section (§406–§431) sets out the two voices (parassapada, attanopada), the three persons, the eight tenses and moods and their endings; the second (§432–§457) the suffixes that come between root and ending — desiderative, denominative, causative, passive, and the vikaraṇa of the eight conjugation classes; the third and fourth (§458–§523) the reduplication of the parokkhā and the sound changes of particular roots.

Verb forms are glossed ▶️ (vattamānā), ⏯ (pañcamī, sattamī, bhavissantī), ⏮ (parokkhā, hiyyattanī, ajjatanī, kālātipatti), with the person 👆 🤘 🤟 and number ⨀ ⨂; roots are cited with √ in the form Kaccāyana uses (√gamu, √paca).

The eight sets of endings and their times

Every set has twelve endings, six parassapada and six attanopada (§406–§407), in three persons (§408); the sets are named by the time or mood they express.

flowchart LR
  V(["the verbal inflections<br/>eight sets of twelve endings"]) --> P["vattamānā §423<br/>the present §414"]
  V --> I["pañcamī §424<br/>command and blessing §415"]
  V --> O["sattamī §425<br/>permission and supposition §416"]
  V --> Pk["parokkhā §426<br/>the unwitnessed past §417"]
  V --> H["hiyyattanī §427<br/>the past before today §418"]
  V --> Aj["ajjatanī §428<br/>the recent past §419 · with mā, any time §420"]
  V --> F["bhavissantī §429<br/>the future §421"]
  V --> Kl["kālātipatti §430<br/>the past that did not happen §422"]

Root, class suffix, ending

A finite verb is a root (§457), a suffix that depends on the root’s class or on the voice (§432–§452), and an ending; the classes are named after their first root.

flowchart LR
  R(["root + class suffix + ending"]) --> C1["bhūvādi: a §445<br/>bhavati"]
  R --> C2["rudhādi: a with a niggahīta §446<br/>rundhati"]
  R --> C3["divādi: ya §447<br/>dibbati"]
  R --> C4["svādi: ṇu, ṇā, uṇā §448<br/>suṇoti"]
  R --> C5["kiyādi: nā §449<br/>kiṇāti"]
  R --> C6["gahādi: ppa, ṇhā §450<br/>gaṇhāti"]
  R --> C7["tanādi: o, yira §451<br/>karoti"]
  R --> C8["curādi: ṇe, ṇaya §452<br/>coreti"]
  R --> Y["impersonal and passive: ya §440–§444<br/>paccati"]
  R --> Dv["derived verbs: kha cha sa §433–§434<br/>āya, īya §435–§437 · ṇe ṇaya ṇāpe ṇāpaya §438"]

Reading D’Alwis

This chapter is the one part of Kaccāyana that James D’Alwis translated, as “Lib. VI.—On Verbs” of his Introduction to Kachchāyana’s Grammar of the Pāli Language (Colombo 1863), reproduced on this site as D’Alwis: Kaccāyana (1863). His four chapters are Kaccāyana’s four sections, each numbered afresh: Cap. I rules 1–26 are §406–§431, Cap. II 1–26 are §432–§457, Cap. III 1–24 are §458–§481, Cap. IV 1–42 are §482–§523. His Pāḷi is the Sinhalese recension that Senart printed in 1871. The footnotes below record where this translation’s text or construal differs from his, and nothing more.

Sections

• Paṭhamakaṇḍa (First Section) (§406–§431)
• Dutiyakaṇḍa (Second Section) (§432–§457)
• Tatiyakaṇḍa (Third Section) (§458–§481)
• Catutthakaṇḍa (Fourth Section) (§482–§523)