Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/146

 h. The voc. gunates the final of the stem, in masc. and fem., alike in the earlier and in the later language. In the neut., it is later allowed to be either of the same form or the unaltered stem; and this was probably the usage in the older time also; not instances enough are quotable to determine the question (AV. has once, and VS.  once).

337. Dual. a. The later and earlier language agree in making the nom.-acc.-voc. masc. and fem. by lengthening the final of the stem. The same cases in the neuter (according to the rule given above) end later in and ; but these endings are nearly unknown in the Veda (as, indeed, the cases are of only rare occurrence): AV. has twice (RV. perhaps once); VS. has  once; RV. has from one -stem, and, once shortened to , from one or two -stems.

b. The unvarying ending of instr.-dat.-abl., in all genders, is added to the unchanged stem.

c. The gen.-loc. of all ages add to the stem in masc. and fem.; in neut., the later language interposes, as elsewhere in the weakest cases, a ; probably in the earlier Vedic the form would be like that of the other genders; but the only occurrence noted is one  in AV.

338. Plural. a. The nom.-voc. masc. and fem. adds the normal ending to the gunated stem-final, making  and. The exceptions in the Veda are very few: one word has  in both genders, and a few feminines have  (like -stems); a very few -stems have. The neut. nom.-acc. ends later in and  (like  from : 329 c); but the Veda has  and  (about equally frequent) much oftener than ; and  and (more usually), more than half as often as.

b. The accus. masc. ends in and, for older  and , of which plain traces remain in the Veda in nearly half the instances of occurrence, and even not infrequently in the later language, in the guise of phonetic combination (208 ff.). The accus. fem. ends in and. But both masc. and fem. forms in and  are found sparingly in the Veda.

c. The inst. of all genders adds to the stem.

d. The dat.-abl. of all genders adds (in V., almost never ) to the stem.

e. The gen. of all genders is made alike in and  (of which the  is not seldom, in the Veda, to be resolved into ). Stems with accented final in the later language may, and in the earlier always do, throw forward the accent upon the ending.

f. The loc. of all genders adds (as : 180) to the stem-final.

g. The accent is in accordance with the general rules already laid down, and there are no irregularities calling for special notice.

339. Examples of declension. As models of -stems may be taken अग्नि m. fire; गति  f. gait; वारि  n. water.