5 2. Consonants (stops) k, kh, g, gh; C, ch, j, jh ; t, th, d, dh ; t, th, d, dh; p, ph, b, bh. Nasals--n, ñ, n, n, m. Continuants—r, l. Fricatives š, ș, s, ḥ-unvoiced; h-voiced. All phonemes except four-n, ñ, ņ and ḥ-may occur in any position; ņ may occur in any position other than the initial and the final; ḥ may occur only after a vowel finally and also medially before an unvoiced non-dental and non-retroflex; n and ñ occur only in non-initial conjuncts. In sandhiḥ is changed into r after a vowel other than a and ã and before a vowel or a voiced consonant. Under the same conditions ḥ after à is lost and after a it combines with it into o. New words can be derived more or less freely by adding affixes to roots or to words. Some- times there is no affix but the basic vowel may undergo a change (Guņa or Vļddhi). Words may combine into compound words. 3. Flexionally words fall into three classes : the substantive, the verb, and the indeclinable. The first two are variable in flexion and the last --origi- nating mostly from the substantive -is not subject to variation in flexion. Che substantive comprises nouns, adjectives and pronouns and are declined in three numbers (singular, dual and plural), three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) and eight cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive and locative). There are several declensional patterns based on the fina phoneme or on the gender or on both.
