Most scholars nowadays reconstruct a static root present with an alternation between lengthened grade in the active singular and full grade in the active plural and in the middle. I am unhappy about this traditional methodology of loosely postulating long vowels for the proto-language. What we need is a powerful theory which explains why clear instances of original lengthened grade are so very few and restrains our reconstructions accordingly. Such a theory has been available for over a hundred years now: it was put forward by Wackernagel in his Old Indic grammar (1896: 66-68). The crucial element of his theory which is relevant in the present context is that he assumed lengthening in monosyllabic word forms, such as the 2 nd and 3 rd sg. active forms of the sigmatic aorist injunctive. Since the sigmatic aorist is the prototypical static paradigm in the verbal inflection, it offers the possibility of testing the relative merits of the two theories, Wackernagel’s lengthening in monosyllabic word forms versus a static paradigm with lengthened grade in the singular and full grade in the plural. As I have pointed out elsewhere (1987), the evidence substantiates Wackernagel’s view and forces us to reject the alternative because we find full, not lengthened grade in the 1 st sg. form, e.g. Vedic jeṣam ‘conquer’, stoṣam ‘praise’. The only 1 st sg. active form with lengthened grade in the sigmatic aorist injunctive is rāviṣam of the root ru- ‘hurt’, which is clearly analogical. It is therefore reasonable to assume that originally the static present also had lengthened grade in the 2 nd and 3 rd sg. active forms of the injunctive and full grade elsewhere. Following Hoffmann, Narten interprets jeṣam and 1 st pl. RV. jeṣma as precative forms (1964: 120). The reason for this interpretation is evidently the absence of lengthened grade (cf. Hoffmann 1967a: 254). The functional evidence for the interpretation as precative (Hoffmann 1967b: 32f.) or subjunctive (Insler 1975: 15 26 ) is very weak, while the formal objections against it are prohibitive. It is therefore preferable to retain the traditional view that these forms are what they look like: full grade injunctive forms, which were interchangeable with the corresponding subjunctive in certain contexts and which could be interpreted as precative when the latter category became common. Narten assumes that the injunctive forms yoṣam and stoṣam took their vocalism from the subjunctive (1964: 213, 277). The model for this analogic development is lacking, however, because the subjunctive ending was -āni, not -am. Hoffmann attributes the alleged substitution of the injunctive ending -am for the earlier subjunctive ending -ā to the influence of the 2 nd sg. imperative: “Das Bestreben, den Konjunktivausgang -ā von dem durch Auslautsdehnung gleichlautend gewordenen Imperativausgang zu sondern, hat das Ausweichen zu -am, wodurch die 1. Person deutlich gekennzeichnet wurde, gefordert” (1967a: 248). I find such influence highly improbable. The use of the 1 st sg. injunctive for the subjunctive must be explained from the meaning of the forms. Note that standard British English offers an exact parallel in the use of ‘I shall’ where other persons ‘will’. During my stay in Dublin, Dr. Patrick Sims-Williams told me that when an Irish friend asked him in front of an open door: “Will I go first?”, the only reasonable answer to him would be: “I don’t know”. Compare in this connection RV.VII 86.2 kad