Page:Grammar of the Bengali Language, literary and colloquial.djvu/28

16 do not amount to separate declensions. The terminations, which, except in the nominative, are the same for both numbers, are the following:—

In nouns ending with a vowel, the initial ^ of the termina- tions of the instrumental, genitive, and locative singulars is elided, thus pita, 'father,' gen. pita-r; guru, teacher,' gen. guru-r; stii, ' woman,' gen. strl-r. So also the nom. plur., as pita-ra, guru-ra, stri-ra.

Although the terminations given above are the regular, normal forms, yet they cannot be used indiscriminately. Some, in fact, are in the present day hardly used at all, and others only under certain restrictions. The question of the proper terminations to be used in each instance is one of the special refinements of this language, and requires careful study.

Two considerations must always be borne in mind:—

First; that all nouns in the language are for purposes of de- clension divided into three classes, denoting respectively 1. Human beings (vyakti-vachak). 2. Living beings other than human (anyapram-vachak). 3. Inanimate objects (apram-vachak). Second ; that some forms and terminations are appropriate to the literary or classical style, others to the colloquial or vulgar