Verba Indoarica: Die Primaren und dekundaren Wurzeln der Sanskrit-Sprache, pt. I: Radices Primariae.

• Author: Gerow, Edwin
• Position: Review

By CHLODWIG H. WERBA. Vienna: VERLAG DER OSTERREICHISCHEN AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN, 1997. Pp. viii + 590. OS 698 (paper).

This work is unlike any of its obvious predecessors - Westergaard's Radices . . ., Whitney's Roots, Verb-Forms . . ., or the Dhatupatha itself (in its several editions) - though it shares elements of all and, to some extent, seeks to complete them. Like the Dhatupatha, but unlike Whitney, it targets verbs of all sorts, whether secondary, lexical, or late; like Whitney, but unlike the Dhatupatha, it classifies verbal forms by stems attested and chronologically; like Westergaard, but unlike Whitney, it offers copious exempla - from the "wissenschaftliche Literatur," as well as from the "Literatur" itself. Like none of the above (but like Bohtlingk's arrangement of roots in his Panini), the roots are classified also by their own morphological structure - as set or anit, as capable of regular strengthening (Ablaut) or reverse (samprasarana) strengthening, or of no strengthening.

The work is a highly technical resource, not easily negotiated by those not totally fluent in German academic (?) usage. It abounds in language such as (attempting to gloss the protogrammatical term madvant- found in certain brahmana texts): "(1) madvant- '(das Verb/die Wurzel) mad ("sich gutlich tun/berauschen") enthaltend' bzw. 'mit (einer/m Strophe/Spruch, die/der) mad enthalt . . ." (p. 131). The referential apparatus is also highly structured and poorly explained. The frequently used abbreviation "Rn" is nowhere glossed (that I could find) - but I concluded by context that it must be Werba's idiosyncrasy for "Wurzeln" - plural of "Wurzel," for which he sometimes uses the abbreviation "R" (for "radix," I suppose). I should add that explanations are sometimes tucked into rather odd places, such as the use of ":" to introduce Avestan and Persian cognate forms - not adduced in Werba's "Sonstige Abkurzungen" (pp. 29-37), but found in footnote 106 ("Mit ':' gekennzeichnet," p. 146) to his prefatory explanation (pp. 145-52) of "Das Lemma" - i.e., the referential categories habitually used to explicate each root in the body of the work. All this makes the work something of a challenge, not likely to be delved into by any but the most sincere - or desperate. For some, however, it will prove essential, especially for its bibliographical apparatus, which brings together under each root whatever discussions the author has been able to find in the...