Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/157

 b. The cases —, , etc. — are written above according to their true phonetic form, almost invariably belonging to them in the Veda; in the written text, of course, the stem-final is made a semi-vowel, and the resulting syllable is circumflexed: thus, , , etc.; only, as usual, after two consonants the resolved forms and  are written instead; and also where the combination  would otherwise result: thus, , [,] and. The RV. really reads etc. twice, and  etc. four times; and such contractions are more often made in the AV. The ending of the nom.-acc.-voc. du. is the equivalent of the later. The nom. sing. in from -stems is found in the older language about sixty times, from over thirty stems.

357. Irregularities of form, properly so called, are very few in this division: as loc. sing. (instead of ) occurs a few times; and there is another doubtful case or two of the same kind; the final is regarded as  or uncombinable (138);  is lengthened to  in a passage or two; - is once or twice abbreviated to -.

358. The process of transfer to the other form of - and -declension (below, 362 ff.), which has nearly extinguished this category of words in the later language, has its beginnings in the Veda; but in RV. they are excessively scanty: namely,, loc. sing., once, and, do., once, and , instr. sing., with two or three other doubtful cases. In the Atharvan, we find the acc. sing. ,, ; the instr. sing. and one or two others; the dat. sing. ,, ; the abl.-gen. sing. ,, ; and the loc. sing. (with anomalous accent). Accusatives plural in and  are nowhere met with.