Dear Nina,

how do you do.

My sincere apologies for this late reply. I do realise that it has
been a year since the previous post. However, privately I am still
two-third of Exercise 26 short before completing the book. With the
group, Florent and I have posted solutions for the first sixteen
exercises, signifying that we proceed well into 2009 to complete
Series G of our Pali study.

The term 'attanopada' literally means 'reflective voice', or as some
scholars may call it: the middle voice. In Vedic and Sanskrit,
attanopada conjugations are used for both the 'reflective' and the
passive voices. I was expecting to have some examples to work on, but
apparently, they are also rare in the exercises!

One is raised by Florent recently:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pali/message/13033

I believe there are technical reasons for the disuse of Attanopada in
Pali or in the Buddhist texts recorded in Pali, an interesting subject
for further examination and detailed study. Even though its occurrence
in the Pali texts is rare, grammar texts can be extensive and
exhaustive in their coverage. Further deliberations can be found here:
http://www.tipitaka.net/pali/synthesis/grammar.10.cdv

The Past Conditional is not past tense, nor is it exactly conditional.
In the link above, you may find it under the Future System. The verbs
are formed from the future stem with inflections similar to the
aorist. It is also described on Warder's page 331.

This is what I have for now. I hope it is helpful, perhaps other
members may like to add to the discussion.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Ong Yong Peng wrote:

I think it will be better for me to work through Exercise 13 (for this
topic), before any attempt on your question.

> Could you please say more about : 2nd bhavissase bhavissavhe,
> it looks so strange. But I see Warder, p. 315, about middle
> conjugation, parassapada. It is poetical, not so frequent. What is
> the English of these two forms?
>
> As to the past conditional, difficult, I do not quite understand it.
>
> > Attanopada
> > Person Singular Plural
> > 3rd bhavissate bhavissante
> > 2nd bhavissase bhavissavhe
> > 1st bhavissa.m bhavissaamhe
> >
> > The Past Conditional