Khotanese verbs

Khotanese bijs‑ and a quotation from the Vīradattaparipr̥cchā in the Book of Zambasta

Late Khotanese has the verbs ¹bijs‑ ‘to pour’ < Iranian *u̯ai̯ǰ‑ ‘to shake, swing’ and ²bījs‑ ‘to fit in’ (intransitive) < Iranian *u̯i̯ač‑ ‘to contain’. The article reinterprets three passages in two Buddhist works and shows that the second verb also occurs in Old Khotanese and was originally spelled ²bijs‑.

Annotations on the Book of Zambasta, VI: Ronald E. Emmerick’s *nvāta‑ and Persian navāxtan

Old Khotanese nvāga‑/nvāya‑ is a past participle passive meaning ‘sung’ in the first place (< Old Iranian *ni-u̯āx-ta‑) rather than a noun meaning ‘song’ (< Old Iranian *ni-u̯āk-a‑, Harold W. Bailey). Comparison with Persian navāxtan ‘to soothe, caress; praise, flatter; play (an instrument); sing; etc.’ suggests that the occurrence in Zambasta 21.29 may be translated ‘praised’.

Morphology of the Khotanese verbs in ‑Vṣ‑

All Khotanese verbs in -Vṣ- with attested third singular present indicative have been
regarded so far as type B verbs, that is, synchronically, verbs with no intervening
vowel between the present stem and the third singular endings -itä active < Iranian
*-a-ti and -te middle < Iranian *-a-tai̯ (variously assimilated to the stem finals,
e.g. -ʾtä, -ṣ-ḍe). Besides, all of them have been considered to be middle verbs with
third singular present indicative -ṣḍe apart from the active verbs *käṣ- ‘to think; to

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