Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/215

 {| class="_sgtable" !Ab. !G. !L.
 * अस्मत् || युष्मत्
 * अस्माकम्, नस्, || युष्माकम्, वस् ,
 * अस्मासु || युष्मासु
 * }

b. The briefer second forms for accus., dat., and gen., in all numbers, are accentless; and hence they are not allowed to stand at the beginning of a sentence, or elsewhere where any emphasis is laid.

c. But they may be qualified by accented adjuncts, as adjectives: e. g. of thee when a conqueror,  for you that were confined,  to us three (all RV.).

d. The ablative is accentless in one or two AV. passages.

492. Forms of the older language. All the forms given above are found also in the older language; which, however, has also others that afterward disappear from use.

a. Thus, we find a few times the instr. sing. (only RV.: like for ); further, the loc. or dat. sing. (only VS.) and, and the dat. or loc. pl. (which is by far the commonest of these -forms) and : their final is uncombinable (or : 138 b). The VS. makes twice the acc. pl. fem. (as if were too distinctively a masculine form). The datives in are in a number of cases written, and in yet others to be read as if written, with, with loss of the final nasal; and in a rare instance or two we have in like manner  and  in the gen. plural. The usual resolutions of semivowel to vowel are made, and are especially frequent in the forms of the second person ( for etc.).

b. But the duals, above all, wear a very different aspect earlier. In Veda and Brāhmaṇa and Sūtra the nominatives are (with occasional exceptions) and, and only the accusatives  and  (but in RV. the dual forms of 1st pers. chance not to occur, unless in [?], once, for ); the instr. in RV. is either (occurs also once in AÇS.) or ; an abl. appears once in RV., and twice in TS.; the gen.-loc. is in RV. (only) instead of. Thus we have here a distinction (elsewhere unknown) of five different dual cases, by endings in part accordant with those of the other two numbers.

493. Peculiar endings. The ending, appearing in the nom. sing. and pl. (and Vedic du.) of these pronouns, will be found often, though only in sing., among the other pronouns. The (or ) of dat. sing. and pl. is met with only here; its relationship with the of the ordinary declension is palpable. The (or