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CHAPTER THREE
Declension
20. In Apbh the declension of nouns and adjectives (forming one group since Sanskrit) and pronouns have almost fallen together, though that was quite distinct earlier. That is to say, there are no strictly separate sets of endings for nouns-adjectives and pronouns. In this process, generally the pronominal endings have survived at the cost of the regular endings of the nouns and adjectives.
(a) The predominance of the pronominal endings is already evident in Pali, which shows that they were quite lively elea ments of the popular language of the Vedic people.
21. There are two numbers, namely singular and plural. The dual was lost already in Pali.
22. There are two genders, namely masculine and femi. nine. The grammarians have also referred to a neuter gender, but that is based on the nominative-accusative pl. ending •ās, later even -ai, representing the older neuter ending -āni, which was however generalised for all words in Apbh: rayanās (ratnāni) :: khalāi (khalān).
(a) As a matter of fact, the neuter gender had disappeared from Apbh. The concrete nouns of neuter gender had become masc. and the abstract nouns bad become fem. The ending -ailai was attached to words without any distinction in the beginning, but in Hindi it was restricted to the fem., that is, to the originally neuter abstract nouns.
