230 THE DECLENSION OF NOUNS §3. The Case-terminations Nominative Singular , Masc. and Fem. The nominative singular of masculine and feminine nouns is formed in three ways, (1) by vrddhi of the suffix, (2) by the termination s, (3) by the simple stem uncharacterised in any way. The basis of the first method has been dealt with at length in the section dealing with the formation of nouns. There it was seen that adjectives and agent nouns were formed on the basis of the various types of neuter stem by the transference of the accent to the suffix, and that for phonetic reasons which are not now clear, this led to the vrddhi of the suffix in the nom. sg. Assoc- iated with this vrddhi there is a tendency for the final semi- vowel of a suffix to be elided : pita , brahmi . The vrddhiejd type of nom. sg. appears regularly in the case of masc. r- t n- and s- stems (i data , cf. Gk, Sorrjp ; brahmi , cf. Gk, ; raksas , sumands , cf. Gk. pevSrjs, tvfievrjs), rarely in the. case of i-s terns (sdkha). A similar vrddhied nom. sg, originally existed in the case of w-stems of this type, but in all cases where such vrddhi is preserved it has secondarily acquired the addition of -$ : Skt. dyaus , Av. uzbdzaus, Gk. fiaaiAev? (for etc. The termination -s appears in Sanskrit, which in this respect is in close agreement with the related languages, in the mas- culine a-stems (devas, Lat. deus) in masc. and fem. i- and sy- stems, both of the action-noun {malts, krdtus, Gk. /teeny, 7777^9, etc.) and adjectival type {iucis, purus ; Gk. tSpty, 7 toAuV, etc.), in t-stems of the vrki - type and w-stems, in consonantal, stems (action-noun or agent), including the monosyllabic stems originally ending in -11 (dhts, bhis). It is clear that there is no common principle uniting these various formations, and distinguishing them from those classes in which the nom. sg. masc. and fem. is formed differently. It is also clear that the range of s-nominatives has extended at the expense of other types. This has already been observed in the case of the vrddhied nominatives in -ans. It is also clear that the feminines in -i of the vrki class, and those in -u ( tanUs ) have acquired their -s from the radical stems in -% and -u which else- where are declined like them. The feminines in ~a and those in -I of the devi class preserve the uncharacterised nominative which was original to the stems in -h. Furthermore it is doubtful whether the 5-nominative was originally attached to the u and
