VI. Declension. Nouns. Consonant Stems.
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d. A distinction is often made in the stem between strong (or full) and weak (or_ reduced) case-forms. It appears in its full development only in derivative consonant stems, affecting the suffixes -am'; -an, -man, -van; -ant, -mant, -vani; -tar; -yams; -varns. The strong form of the stem appears in the masculine nom. voc.^ ace. singular and dual, and in the nom. voc. plural; and in the neuter nom. voc. ace. plural only. The weak form of the stem appears in the remaining ' cases. But in the first four and in the last of the above suffixes the weak stem which appears before endings with initial consonant is further weakened before endings with initial vowel.
e. The way in which the normal endings are attached to the strong and the weak stem with accompanying shift of accent, may be illustrated by the inflexion of the stem ad-ant- 'eating' in the masc:
Singular: N. ad-dn. V. dd-an. A. ad-dntam. I. ad-at-a. D. ad-at-l Ah. G. ad-at-ds. L. ad-at-L
Dual: N. A. ad-dnt-a, -au. V. dd-ant-a, -au. I. D. Ab. ad-dd-bkyam. G. L. ad-at-ds.
Plural: N. ad-dnt-as. V. dd-ant-as. A. ad-at-ds. I. ad-dd-bhis. D. Ab. ad- dd-bhyas. G. ad-at-S.ni. L. ad-dt-su.
The neuter differs only in the N. A. V. of all numbers : Sing. : N. A. ad-dt; ■ V. dd-at. Du.: N. A. ad-at-i. PL: N. A. ad-dnt-i.
A. Consonant Stems.
296. Among these stems there are none ending in gutturals 3 and only two ending in the cerebral d. Those which end in the labials /, bh, m are fairly numerous. The majority end in dentals, the only class of consonants in which every sound contained in the group {t, th, d, dh, n) is represented. Of the semivowels, y is represented by one stem, v by three stems, and r by a large number of stems. There are many stems ending in the sibilants s, s, s, and several in the breathing A as representative of both a new and an old palatal.
I. Palatal Stems.
297. I. Radical stems in -c. — All uncompounded stems (being of course monosyllabic) are, with very few isolated exceptions, feminine substantives. The exceptions are: tvdc- 'skin', otherwise f., occurs twice in the L. sing, tvaci as a m.; drc-, in its only occurrence, I. sing, arc-d, is a m. adj. in the sense of 'shining'; and kri'mc-, 'curlew' (VS.) is a m. sub- stantive.
Compounds, as being adjectives, are often m.; but excepting those formed with anc- the only n. is a-pfk (from pre- 'mix'), used adverbially. Compounds ending in -anc regularly distinguish strong and weak forms. This distinction elsewhere appears to a limited extent only in compounds ending in the three roots vyac- 'extend', vac- 'speak', sac- 'accompany': the first by nasalization in uru-vydncam^ 'far-extending', the other two by lengthening the radical vowel in several compounds.
I Though in origin a radical element, ■aiic is practically a suffix; cp. 298.
' The voc. sing., however, generally assumes a somewhat shortened form owing to the accent invariably shifting to the initial syllable in this case.
3 The gutturals as finals of nominal stems having become the new palatals c,j and h^
(as distinguished from the old palatals yi and /^i).
4 These compounds formed with the root aiic- will, owing to the peculiar changes which the stem undergoes, be treated apart from other words ending in radical t.
5 Through the influence of compounds formed with -anc, like fraty-dncam.
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