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26
SAÚDRGARĀSAKA 'Now, though it is true that in the stanzas cited by Hemacandra or elsewhere in the Ap. literature come to light so far, there is nothing to indicate that Ap. employed bare stems as genitives, still if one glances at later linguistic developments, there is much there to create a strong presumption in favour of a factual basis for the rule given by the ancient Ap. grammarians. Thus, for example, in Dingal or Old Mārwārī literature cases of genitively used bare stems occur apace. There they are not anything like casual but make up a regular category of forms. And the language of the Sr. which bears unmistakable influence of some early vernaculars offers us several clear cases of such ‘endingless' genitives.
Further, these together with the endingless' insts./loc. (see (2). below) and nom./aco. (see § 52, Remarks.) forms point out that in the case of the whole of the 27-declension at least, the bare stem without any flexion-ending could appear in the singular (as yet rarely in the plur.) of almost all cases. Add to this the formal confusion and the consequent impression of "endinglessness' that could be caused by the homophony (1) of the instr./loc. forms in 'ç of the fem. 8-stems and the nom./aco. forms in of the fem. E-stems ($ 54, Remarks.), as also (2) of the insts. gen. forms in °57 of the 's-stems and the nom./acc. forms in 'set of the enlarged fem. 37-stems ($ 56, Remarks). All these facts are strongly indicative of the active process of disintegration of the old morphological system, the final result whereof is seen in the languages like, e. g., Dingal which in consequence of so to say the total loss of the flexion-endings at times use in both the numbers and all the cases the bare stem without any addition or modification whatsoever.
Below are collected the cases of the genitively used naked stems attested in the Sr. They relate to the masc. as well as the fem. 37-stem.
y yada (= qarat) 70a, 7 AT 86a, sia ... H 109a, forcat 987€ 1576, yhta...forjat 158d-159a, gutas... Son 191c, ET 47a, 51a, d, w e cafea 51a, foa (with #07, v etc.) 101d, 686, 716, 806, 885, 92d, forcy (with v377) 956.
(2). Employment of the bare stem in the instr./00. (sing:). As in the genitive, so in the instr./loc. too the bare stem without any ending appears occasionally. Of course phoneti
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