These may seem isolated cases, but the principles on which they rest pervade the whole structure of language. It is surprising to see how much may be achieved by an application of those principles, how large results may be obtained by the smallest and simplest means. By means of the single radical î or yâ (originally ya), which in the Aryan languages means to go or to send, the almost unconscious framers of Aryan grammar formed not only their neuter, denominative, and causative verbs, but their passives, their optatives, their futures, and a considerable number of substantives and adjectives. Every one of these formations, in Sanskrit as well as in Greek, can be explained, and has been explained, as the result of a combination between any given verbal root and the radical î or yâ.
There is, for instance, a root nak, expressive of perishing or destruction. We have it in nak, night; Latin nox, Greek νύξ, meaning originally the waning, the disappearing, the death of day. We have the same root in composition, as, for instance, jîva-nak, life-destroying; and by means of suffixes Greek has formed from it νεκ-ρός, a dead body, νέκ-υς, dead, and νέκ-υ-ες in the plural, the departed. In Sanskrit this root is turned into a simple verb, naś-a-ti, he perishes. But in order to give to it a more distinctly neuter meaning, a new verbal base is formed by composition with ya, naś-ya-ti, he goes to destruction, he perishes.
By the same or a very similar process denominative verbs are formed in Sanskrit to a very large extent. From râjan, king, we form râjâ-ya-te, he behaves like a king, literally, he goes the king, he acts the king, il a l’allure d’un roi. From kumârî, girl, kûmârâ-ya-te, he behaves like a girl, etc.[15]
After raising naś to nâśa, and adding the same radical ya, Sanskrit produces a causative verb, nâśa-ya-ti, he sends to destruction, the Latin nêcare.
In close analogy to the neuter verb naśyati, the regular passive is formed in Sanskrit by composition with ya, but by adding, at the same time, a different set of personal terminations. Thus náś-yá-ti means he perishes, while naś-yá-te means he is destroyed.
The usual terminations of the Optative in Sanskrit are:—
| yâm, | yâs, | yât, | yâma, | yâta, | yus, |
or, after bases ending in vowels:—
| iyam, | is, | it, | ima, | ita, | iyus. |
In Greek:—