Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/178

 b. Of n. mouth, and  water, only a case or two are found, in the older language, beside  and, and  and  (432).

399. Some of the alternative stems mentioned above are instances of transition from the consonant to a vowel declension: thus,,. A number of other similar cases occur, sporadically in the older language, more commonly in the later. Such are, -, -, , , and , , , -, , , , , , and perhaps a few others.

a. A few irregular stems will find a more proper place under the head of Adjectives.

400. Original adjectives having the root-form are comparatively rare even in the oldest language.

a. About a dozen are quotable from the RV., for the most part only in a few scattering cases. But great is common in RV., though it dies out rapidly later. It makes a derivative feminine stem,, which continues in use, as meaning earth etc.

401. But compound adjectives, having a root as final member, with the value of a present participle, are abundant in every period of the language.

a. Possessive adjective compounds, also, of the same form, are not very rare: examples are with offered bowl;  sun-skinned;  four-footed;  kind-hearted, friendly;  (i.e. -) having streaming waters;  furnished with a thousand doors.

b. The inflection of such compounds is like that of the simple root-stems, masculine and feminine being throughout the same, and the neuter varying only in the nom.-acc.-voc. of all numbers. But special neuter forms are of rare occurrence, and masc.-fem. are sometimes used instead.

c. Only rarely is a derivative feminine stem in formed: in the older language, only from the compounds with  or  (407 ff.), those with  (402), those with, as , , and with , as , and ,  (AV.),  (? ÇB).

Irregularities of inflection appear in the following:

402. The root slay, as final of a compound, is inflected somewhat like a derivative noun in  (below, 420 ff.), becoming  in the nom. sing., and losing its in the middle cases and its  in the weakest cases (but only optionally in the loc. sing.). Further, when the vowel is lost, in contact with following  reverts to its original. Thus: