Hi Nina,

I have the actual book published by the PTS; I've never seen a digital copy, but if anyone knows if it's available, I'd appreciate hearing.

In Skt. and Pali, there two voices, the active and the middle. The verb "as" ("to be") in Skt. only has the active voice, but in Pali it uses the middle voice as well in poems. However, the form I gave you is for the second plural optative - sorry! my mistake - there is no middle form for second person plural for the verb "as", there is only a middle form for 1st person plural (asmase or amhaase) and third person plural (sante). Usually the middle voice is used for verbs that are self-reflexive (like manyate in Skt. "he thinks" which is only used in the middle; however in Paali it takes normal active endings) but it has largely fallen out of use in Paali except for the gaathaas, ("only in the gaathhas" for the verb "as" Geiger says in this section).

I find Geiger the best of all the grammars I use - it has been revised by Norman in 1994 and 2000, so it's worth having a copy. It is excellent for phonological changes. I also use Warder and Collins which are both good,

Metta, Bryan

--- On Tue, 5/31/11, Nina van Gorkom <vangorko@...> wrote:

From: Nina van Gorkom <vangorko@...>
Subject: Re: [Pali] The New Pali Course Part III [47/120]
To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
Received: Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 7:06 PM
















 









Dear Bryan,

Thank you very much. Is there a link to Geiger? What is plural middle?

Nina.

Op 31-mei-2011, om 19:04 heeft Bryan Levman het volgende geschreven:



> The normal second person plural ending is -atha, but the verb root

> as has attha in the second person plural active while assatha (with

> -atha ending) is second person plural middle. See Geiger, section

> 141.1



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