122 THE FORMATION OF NOUNS (2) The g rowth of grammat ical gender. In the earliest period the threefold classification did not exist. There was no feminine and nouns were divided into two types, 1 neuters 1 and ' com- mon gender*, the latter so called because the masculine and feminine developed out of it. This is the state of affairs actually found in Hittite, and it is further confirmed by many survivals in other languages (Lat. ferens masc. and fern., SkL suvdsds nom. sg. m. and fern., etc., etc.). The feminine gender arose in the later period of Indo-European, and strictly speaking only then is it possible to speak of gender in the proper sense of the term (3) The great variety of possible suffixes that could arise from the various combinations of the primitive suffixal elements led necessarily to a process of selec tion, so that many combinations which are known to have existed have not survived to the Vedic period. Thus out of a series of suffixes forming neuter nouns, and based on the primitive suffixes -er and -en, namely IE -erjr, -merjmr, -werjur, -yerjir, -terjtr, serfs? and -enjn, menjmnj , wenjun , -yen jin, - tenjtn , - senjsn , only -men jinn remains as a" living suffix in Vedic in the formation of neuter nouns. The others are better represented in agent-noun and adjectival derivatives which is in accordance with what has been said above about the decline of the neuter formations. (4} Another feature of great importance is the growing use and extension of the them atic vowel ( Skt. a, IE ejo ) as a final suffix. It has been saffi^bove that the original use of this vowel as a suffix was probably to form adjectival derivatives, in which case it was accented. Later its use spread as an extension of consonantal stems. This tendency is well known in the further development of Indo-Aryan (Class. Skt. pada- ' foot * replacing pad-jpad etc.), but it had been actively at work for long in the prehistoric period. Thus Skt. dnjana- n. 1 ointment ' replaces an older consonantal stem which is preserved in Lat. unguen. As a result of this development thematic stems became by far the most numerous type both in Sanskrit, 1 and in other lan- guages which reflect the late IE stage. In Hittite, on the other hand, which reflects an earlier stage of Indo-European there is not such a great preponderance of a-stems, 1 In the Bgveda 45 per cent of all nominal stems end in -a.
