Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/116



261. The general subject of declension includes nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, all of which are inflected in essentially the same manner. But while the correspondence of nouns and adjectives is so close that they cannot well be separated in treatment (chap. V.), the pronouns, which exhibit many peculiarities, will be best dealt with in a separate chapter (VII.); and the words designating number, or numerals, also form a class peculiar enough to require to be presented by themselves (chap. VI.).

262. Declensional forms show primarily case and number; but they also indicate gender — since, though the distinctions of gender are made partly in the stem itself, they also appear, to no inconsiderable extent, in the changes of inflection.

263. Gender. The genders are three, namely masculine, feminine, and neuter, as in the other older Indo-European languages; and they follow in general the same laws of distribution as, for example, in Greek and Latin.

a. The only words which show no sign of gender-distinction are the personal pronouns of the first and second person (491), and the numerals above four (483).

264. Number. The numbers are three — singular, dual, and plural.

a. A few words are used only in the plural: as wife,  water; the numeral  two, is dual only; and, as in other languages, many words are, by the nature of their use, found to occur only in the singular.

265. As to the uses of the numerals, it needs only to be remarked that the dual is (with only very rare and sporadic exceptions) used strictly in all cases where two objects are logically indicated, whether directly or by combination of two individuals: thus, may heaven and earth both be propitious to thee!  having chosen both the divine and the human sacrificers;  of the two paths leading respectively to the gods and to the Fathers.