Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/156

 their root-declension: examples are (of which the further compounds in part have root-forms),, , , and others.

c. Then, in the later language, a few feminines in are made from the stems in  shortened from : thus,, , , , , ,.

355. Polysyllabic Stems. Stems of this division (A) of more than one syllable are very rare indeed in the later language, and by no means common in the earlier. The Rig-Veda, however, presents a not inconsiderable body of them; and as the class nearly dies out later, by the disuse of its stems or their transfer to other modes of declension, it may be best described on a Vedic basis.

a. Of stems in, masculines, half-a-dozen occur in the Veda: , , and are otherwise viewed by the later grammar: see below, 433-4;  (nom. pr.) has the anomalous nom. sing. (and loc. as well as dat. ); great is found only in accus. sing. and abundantly in composition; frame has only  not derivable from.

b. Of stems in, over seventy are found in the Veda, nearly all feminines, and all accented on the final. Half of the feminines are formed from masculines with change of accent: thus, (m. ),  (m. ); others show no change of accent: thus,  (m. ); others still have no corresponding masculines: thus,, ,. The masculines are about ten in number: for example,, , , ,.

c. Of stems in, the number is smaller: these, too, are nearly all feminines, and all accented on the final. The majority of them are the feminine adjectives in to masculines in  or  (above, 344 b): thus,, , ,. A few are nouns in, with change of accent: thus, ,  ,  ; or without change, as. And a few have no corresponding masculines: thus,, ,. The masculines are only two or three: namely,, , (?); and their forms are of the utmost rarity.

356. The mode of declension of these words may be illustrated by the following examples: m. charioteer;  f. stream;  f. body.

a. No one of the selected examples occurs in all the forms; forms for which no example at all is quotable are put in brackets. No loc. sing. from any -stem occurs, to determine what the form would be. The stem is selected as an example partly in order to emphasize the difference between the earlier language and the later in regard to the words of this division:  is later the model of derivative inflection.