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 VI. DECLENSION. NOUNS. CONSONANT STEMS. Derivative stems in -an, -man, -van. 325. This declension embraces a large number of words, the stems in -van being by far the commonest, those in -an the least frequent. It is almost limited to masculines and neuters; but some forms of adjective stems serve as feminines, and there is one specifically f. stem, yiş-an- 'woman'¹. The distinction of strong and weak forms is regularly made. In the strong cases the a of the suffix is usually lengthened, e. g. ádhvan-am; bnt in half a dozen -an and -man stems it remains unchanged; e. g. arya-mán-am. In the weak cases the a is often syncopated before vowel endings, though never when -man and -van are preceded by a consonant2, e. g. I. sing. grá- vn-a3 from grá-van-, 'pressing stone'4, while before consonant endings the final n disappears5, e. g. rája-bhis. In the RV. the syncopation never takes place in the N. A. du. n., nor with one exception (sata-dávn-i) in the L. sing. As in all other stems ending in -n, the nasal is dropped in the N. sing.; e. g. m. ádhvā, n. kárma. But there are two peculiarities of inflexion which, being common to these three groups, do not appear elsewhere in the consonant declension. Both the L. sing. and the N. A. pl. n. are formed in two ways. The ending of the L. sing. is in the RV. dropped more often than not, e. g. mūrdhán-i and murdhán, the choice often depending on the metre. The N. A. pl. n. is formed with ani from 18 stems and with a from 19 stems 7 in the RV.; seven of the latter appear with -a in the Samhita text, but with -a like the rest in the Pada text. The evidence of the Avesta indicates that there were in the Indo-Iranian period two forms, nāmān and namāni, the former losing its -n as usual when final after a long vowel. On this ground the -ã form of the Samhita, though the less frequent, would appear to be the older 8. There are here many supplementary stems and numerous transitions to the a-declension. 1. Stems in -an. 326. These stems, which are both m. and n., are not numerous. They include some which at first sight have the appearance of belonging to one of the other two groups: yú-v-an-9 'youth', sv-án- 'dog', rji-sv-an 10 N. of a man, matari-sv-an-10 N. of a demi-god, vi-bhv-an-¹¹ 'far-reaching'; pári-jm-an-¹2 'going round'. The n. sirs-án- is an extended stem from siras- 'head' sir(a)s-án-. The stems in-van regularly form their f. in -vari, e. g. pi-van, pi-vari; those in-an and man by adding to the syncopated stem at the end of compounds; e. g. sóma- rajñ-i-, páñca-nämn-i- (AV.). 203 a. Besides the N. pl. yóşan-as 'women', six or seven forms of this declension appear to be feminine as agreeing with f. substantives: výsa 'raining' (kášā, vák), výṣaṇam (tvácam), vŕsaņā (dyávā-pṛthiví), pári-jmānas "going round' (vidyútas), rapsád-ūdhabhis having distended udders' (dhenúbhis) 13, vaja-karmabhis (SV. TS.) and vaja-bharmabhis (VIII. 1930) 'bringing rewards' (ūtibhis). 2 This exception does not apply when -an is preceded by two consonants, e. g. sakth-ná. 3 But also G. sing. výsan-as (AV.). The synco- pation nearly always takes place in -an stems and in nearly half of the -man and -van stems. 4 When the accent is on the suffix it is thrown on the ending in these syncopated forms, e. g. mahná from mah-án-. 5 That is, a here represents an original sonant nasal, see p. 17, note ². - 6 48 locatives (occurring 127 times) have the i, 45 (occurring 203 times) drop it. See LANMAN 535- 7 But those in -āni occur nearly twice as often. 8 Cp. BRUGMANN, KG. 483 and LANMAN 538. 9 Cp. the comparative yav-īyān and the Avestan yuan. 10-svan in both these compounds is probably derived from fu- 'grow'. II From bhū- 'be'. 12 From gam- 'go'. 13 The f. of -an stems at the end of compounds is formed with - in ácchidra- ūdhn-i- 'having a faultless udder', sam-rájn-i-