Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/172

 thus, skin,  road,  heart,  and  water,  door,  mouth,  and, summit.

j. Thirty or forty such words are found in the older language, and some of them continue in later use, while others have been transferred to other modes of declension or have become extinct.

k. Stems more or less clearly derivative, but made with suffixes of rare or even isolated occurrence. Thus:

1. derivatives (V.) from prepositions with the suffix :, , , , , , ; — 2. derivatives (V.)  (perhaps abbreviated from ), in a few isolated forms: thus,, , , , ; — 3. other derivatives in preceded by various vowels: thus,, , , , , ; ; , , , , , ; ; , ; and the numerals for 30, 40, 50,  etc. (475); — 4. stems in : thus,, , , , , ; — 5. stems in preceded by various vowels: thus,, , , ; , , ,  (?); ; — 6. a few stems ending in a sibilant apparently formative: thus,, -, , , ; — 7. a remnant of unclassifiable cases, such as, , , , , , (?), , , ,.

384. Gender. The root-stems are regularly feminine as nomen actionis, and masculine as nomen agentis (which is probably only a substantive use of their adjective value: below, 400). But the feminine noun, without changing its gender, is often also used concretely: e. g., f. (√ be inimical) means harming, enmity, and also harmer, hater, enemy — thus bordering on the masculine value. And some of the feminines have a completely concrete meaning. Through the whole division, the masculines are much less numerous than the feminines, and the neuters rarest of all.

a. The independent neuter stems are (also -),, , ,  flesh,  mouth, ,  (with which may be mentioned the indeclinables  and ); also the apparent derivatives , , ,.

385. Strong and weak stem-forms. The distinction of these two classes of forms is usually made either by the presence or absence of a nasal, or by a difference in the quantity of the stem-vowel, as long or short; less often, by other methods.

386. A nasal appears in the strong cases of the following words:

1. Compounds having as final member the root or : see below, 407 ff.; and RV. has once from root ; — 2. The