________________
S. 175.]
LESSON THREE
173 Like Mas. nouns Neu. nouns in AMg. also end in -a, -i andu. The terminations for those in a are: N. A. sing. -m; plu. -im, -ni. Before the plu. terminations the preceding vowel is lengthened. The other terminations are the same as those of the Mas. nouns (cf. 148).
LESSON THREE
As regards origin, the sing. is identical with the Sk. form (vanam) and the plu. termination ni is the same as Sk. -ni (phalani, phalani). The other form phalaim or phalai offers difficulty. Bloch, Alsdorf and others accept the phonetic change of the loss of the nasal -n and the nasalisation of the following vowel. Gray suggests that phalai comes from the Vedic plu. phala + (i) ini which is borrowed from nouns ending in -n (cf. balini) with analogical shortening of -i- .or (ii) -in of pre-Sanskrit as in Av..
N. V.
A.
174 A Neu. noun like a 'a forest' will be declined as follows:
I.
Ab.
G.
L.
qui
qui
वणेण, वर्णणं
वणा, वणाओ
वणस्स
aui, auifè, aufer.
"
97
avis, quo
वाई, वाणि
auife, quife
वणेहिंतो
वणाण, वणाणं
ady aug
"
175 CHANGE OF GENDER. Besides the usual neuter nouns in Sk. some vowel-ending Mas. nouns show a plural form of the Neu. declension. gunāim 'virtues' (guna); pasinaim questions' (praśna); māsāim 'months' (māsa); phāsāim touches (sparsa); rukkhāim 'trees' (vṛkṣa).
Fem. nouns becoming Neu. are: tayāni barks' (tvak); pāuyāim 'shoes' (pādukā); pantiyāim row' (pankti); bhamuhaim eyebrows" (Pk. bhamuhā).
BASES. Nouns ending in consonants become shortened by the dropping of the consonant: jaga 'world' (jagat); tava 'penance'
7
