366. The noun strī́ f. woman (probably contracted from sūtrī́ generatrix), follows a mixed declension: thus, strī́, stríyam or strī́m, striyā́, striyāí, striyā́s, striyā́m, strí; stríyāu, strībhyā́m, striyós; stríyas, stríyas or strī́s, strībhís, strībhyás, strīṇā́m, strīṣú (but the accusatives strī́m and strī́s are not found in the older language, and the voc. stri is not quotable). The accentuation is that of a root-word; the forms (conspicuously the nom. sing.) are those of the other or derivative division.
Adjectives.
367. a. The occurrence of original adjectives in long final vowels, and of compounds having as final member a stem of the first division, has been sufficiently treated above, so far as masculine and feminine forms are concerned. To form a neuter stem in composition, the rule of the later language is that the final long vowel be shortened; and the stem so made is to be inflected like an adjective in i or u (339, 341, 344).
b. Such neuter forms are very rare, and in the older language almost unknown. Of neuters from ī-stems have been noted in the Veda only hariçríyam, acc. sing. (a masc. form), and suādhías, gen. sing. (same as mac. and fem.); from ū-stems, only a few examples, and from stem-forms which might be masc. and fem. also: thus, vibhú, subhú, etc. (nom.-acc. sing.: compare 354); supúā and mayobhúvā, instr. sing.; and mayobhú, acc. pl. (compare purú: 342 k); from ā-stems occur only half-a-dozen examples of a nom. sing. in ās, like the masc. and fem. form.
c. Compounds having nouns of the second division as final member are common only from derivatives in ā; and these shorten the final to a in both masculine and neuter: thus, from a not and prajā progeny come the masc. and neut. stem apraja, fem. aprajā childless. Such compounds with nouns in ī and ū are said to be inflected in masc. and fem. like the simple words (only with īn and ūn in acc. pl. masc.); but the examples given by the grammarians are fictitious.
d. Stems with shortened final are occasionally met with: thus, ekapatni, āttalakṣmi; and such adverbs (neut. sing. accus.) as upabhāimi, abhyujjayini. The stem strī is directed to be shortened to stri for all genders.
368. It is convenient to give a complete paradigm, for all genders, of an adjective stem in अ a. We take for the purpose पाप pāpá evil, of which the feminine is usually made in आ ā in the later language , but in ई ī in the older.
