Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/66

 110. In both classes of cases, however, the general principles of combination are the same—and likewise, to a great extent, the specific rules. The differences depend in part on the occurrence or non-occurrence of certain combinations in the one class or the other; in part, on the difference of treatment of the same sound as final of a root or of an ending, the former being more persistent than the latter; in part, on the occurrence in external combination of certain changes which are apparently phonetic but really historical; and, most frequent and conspicuous of all, on the fact that (157) vowels and semivowels and nasals exercise a sonantizing influence in external combination, but not in internal. Hence, to avoid unnecessary repetition as well as the separation of what really belongs together, the rules for both kinds of combination are given below in connection with one another.

111. a. Moreover, before case-endings beginning with and  (namely, , , ), the treatment of the finals of stems is in general the same as in the combinations of words  with one another—whence those endings are sometimes called -endings, and the cases they form are known as -cases.

b. The importance of this distinction in somewhat exaggerated by the ordinary statement of it. In fact, is the only sonant mute initial of an ending occurring in conjugation, as  in declension; and the difference of their treatment is in part owing to the one coming into collision usually with the final of a root and the other of an ending, and in part to the fact that, as a dental, is more assimilable to palatals and linguals than. A more marked and problematic distinction is made between and the verbal endings, , etc., especially after palatal sounds and.

c. Further, before certain of the suffixes of derivation the final of a stem is sometimes treated in the same manner as that of a word in composition.

d. This is especially the case before secondary suffixes having a markedly distinct office, like the possessive and, the abstract-making , the suffix of material , and so on; and it is much more frequent in the later language than in the earlier. The examples are sporadic in character, and no rule can be given to cover them: for details, see the various suffixes, in chap. XVII. In the RV. (as may be mentioned here) the only examples are (beside, , etc.),  (beside , , etc.),  (beside  etc.),  (beside , , etc.),  (beside  etc.), and , , , and , ,  (beside , , etc.); and the AV. adds only (RV. ).

112. The leading rules of internal combination (as already stated: 108) are those which are of most immediate importance to a beginner in the language, since his first task is to master the principal paradigms of