chandramas, m., 'the moon;' apsaras, f., ' a nymph;' ushas, f., 'the dawn,' from ush, 'to glow:' but in these the nominative is long (-ás). II. His or Jus (nom. -is, -us). In place of as, the neuter affixes is or us are occasionally added; as, from hu, ‘to offer,' havis, 'ghee;' from chaksh, ‘to speak,' chakshus, 'the eye.' See 68. a. With as compare the Latin es in nubes (nabhas), sedes (sadas), &c.; but especially the us and ur of words like genus, scelus, robur. Compare also the Greek formations πáb-os, ed-os, μév-os, ψεύδος, &c. 87. EIGHTH CLASS.-Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter bases in any Consonant, except at and d, an, as. द् त् Formed by using ROOTS as adjectives, substantives, or nouns of agency— Any root may be used to form an adjective or a noun of agency, provided it be the last member of a compound word: thus, from 'to be able,' sarvaśak, omnipotent.' Those roots which end in t or d, or in a short vowel, having t affixed, have been already noticed as falling under the fifth class. This eighth class is intended to comprise all other roots, ending in any consonant; as, bhuj (nom. bhuk); राज् ráj (nom. राट्); प्राच्छ् (nom. प्राठ्) ; बुध् (nom. भुत्); पुर् (nom. पूस्); गिर् (nom. gís); दिव् (nom. dyaus) ; स्पृश् (nom. sprik) ; विश् (nom. विद्) ; fme (nom. fm); ¿e (nom. ya); fuчa (nom. pipak). There are also one or two other nouns derived from roots falling under this class; as, thirsty' (nom. तृष्णक्); ऋत्विज् ' a priest' ( nom. ऋत्विक्); असृज् n. 'blood' (nom. असृक्); and a few substantives formed by prefixing prepositions to roots; as, afЯy f. ‘fuel' (nom. #f¶^), from the root to kindle' (see 43 and 75, with note). A few roots standing by themselves as substantives may fall under this class : f. 'battle' (nom. ); f. hunger' (nom. ;f.speech' thus, (nom. ), from vach, 'to speak,' the medial a being lengthened. Greek and Latin use a few monosyllabic roots in the same manner; as, of (óπ), pλó5 (pλoy), &c.; and Latin vox (voc), lex (leg), dux (duc). CHAPTER IV. DECLENSION; OR INFLECTION OF THE BASE OF NOUNS, SUBSTANTIVE AND ADJECTIVE. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 88. HAVING explained how the base of nouns is generally formed, we have now to shew how it is inflected. As, in the last chapter, nouns, substantive and adjective, were arranged under eight classes, according to the final of their bases (the first four classes comprising those ending in vowels, the last four those ending in consonants), so it will be the object of the present chapter to exhibit their declension or inflection under the same eight classes. Moreover, as every class comprised adjectives as well as substantives, so it is intended that the declension of a masculine, feminine, and neuter substantive, exhibited under each, shall serve as the model for the declension of masculine, feminine, and neuter adjectives coming under the same class. 89. The learner will have already gathered that the noun has three genders, and that the gender is, in many cases, determinable from the termination of the base. Thus, all bases in á, í, and those formed with the affix ti (No. 81. V), are feminine: nearly all nouns whose crudes end in ana, twa, ya, tra (see under 80), as, is, us (86), and man (85. II), are neuter; all in iman (85. IV) are masculine; but those in a, i, u, and ṛi, are not reducible to rule. The nominative case is, however, in the first of these instances a guide to the gender; as, devas, a deity,' is masculine; but dánam, a gift,' And in other cases the meaning of the word; as, pitri, 'a father,' is masculine; and mátri, a mother,' feminine. neuter. 90. In Sanskrit, all the relations between the words in a sentence are expressed by inflections. A great many prepositions exist in the language, but they are rarely used alone in government with any case, their chief use being as prefixes to verbs and nouns. The dearth of such useful syntactical auxiliaries leads to the necessity for eight cases, which are regularly built upon the base. These are called, 1. nominative; 2. accusative; 3. instrumental; 4. dative; 5. ablative; 6. genitive; 7. locative; 8. vocative *. Of these, the third and seventh are new to the classical student. The instrumental denotes generally the instrument by which a thing is done ; as, tena kṛitam, done by him.' The locative generally refers to the place or time in which any thing is done; as, Ayodhyáyám, ‘ in Ayodhyά;' púrvakále, in former time;' bhúmau, ' on the ground †.' Hence it follows that the ablative is restricted to the sense from, 6 * These cases will sometimes be denoted by their initial letters. Thus N. will denote nominative; I., instrumental. † Both these cases are used to denote various other relations. See the Chapter on Syntax. and cannot be used, as in Latin and Greek, to express by, with, in, at, on, &c. 91. According to the Indian system of teaching, each of these eight cases has three numbers, singular, dual, and plural; and to each belongs a termination which is considered to be peculiarly its own, serving alike for masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns. Again, according to the native system, some of the terminations may be combined with memorial letters to aid pronunciation or assist the memory. Thus the proper termination of the nominative singular is s (expressible by Visarga before k, p, and the sibilants, or at the end of a sentence, see 63); but the memorial termination issu, the letter u being only memorial. Similarly, the termina tion of the nominative plural is jas, the j being memorial. The two schemes of termination, with and without the memorial letters, are here exhibited. The first is given in small type, as being of no importance excepting as subservient to the second. Terminations with memorial letters. 92. Observe-The vocative is not given in the above general scheme, as it is held to be only another aspect of the nominative, and always coincides with the nom. in the dual and plural. In the singular it is often identical with the base, and has no termination. a. Observe also-The terminations beginning with vowels will often be called vowel-terminations; those beginning with consonants, including the nom. sing., will be called consonantal-terminations. Similarly, those cases which take the vowel-terminations will sometimes be called vowel-cases; and those which take the consonantal, consonantal-cases. 93. Having propounded the above scheme, which for convenience will be called the memorial scheme of terminations, as the general type of the several case-affixes in the three numbers, Indian grammarians proceed to adapt them to every noun, substantive and adjective, in the language, as well as to pronouns, numerals, and participles, whether masculine, feminine, or neuter. In fact, their theory is, that there is but one declension in Sanskrit, and that the base of a noun being given, and the regular case-terminations being given, the base is to be joined to those terminations according to the usual rules for the combination of final and initial letters, as in the following examples of the two bases, vav), and fi harit, m. f., ' green.' nau, f., ‘a ship' (navi, हरित्सु haritsu 96. Unfortunately, however, it happens, that of nouns whose bases end in vowels, nau, a ship,' is nearly the only one that admits of this regular junction of the base with the case-endings; and, although nouns whose bases end in consonants are numerous, and are generally declined as regularly as harit, yet they are numerically insignificant, compared with nouns in a, á, i, í, u, and ri, whose declension requires frequent changes in the final of the base, and various modifications, or even substitutions, in the terminations. 97. Thus in the first class of nouns ending in a (which will be found to comprise more nouns than all the other seven classes together; compare 80 with 81-87), not only is the final a of the base liable to be lengthened and changed to e, but also the termination ina is substituted for á, the proper termination of the instrumental sing. masc.; ya for e of the dative; t for as of the ablative; sya for as of the genitive; n for as of the accus. plural; ais for bhis of the instrum. plural. And in many other nouns particular changes and substitutions are required, some of which are determined by the gender. |