THE FORMATION OF NOUNS I92 addition there are a small number of primary action nouns and the like. Such are : (a) Dm-declension : idci ‘ power sdmi ' holy work *, tavisx ' strength dsandi ' stool (b) Fr&f-declension : nadt 1 river dehi- ' wall, embank- ment ", start- ' barren cow ' (Gk, crreipa), surmi ' tube ", srni - 1 sickle palalt- ‘ straw sphigt- * hip nandi- ‘ joy athari - ' flame oni- ' breast ksoni - ' flood khdrt- ‘ a measure *, cakri - * wheel tandri - ‘ sloth, lassitude tapani - ' heat ", laksmt- ' mark, auspicious mark, good fortune tari- * raft tantri - ' string The suffix -u is used for making feminines to stems in -u (alternatively -vl is used, or the unaltered stem functions as feminine), e.g. land- * thin ’, phalgu - ' reddish babhrd- 'brown', corresponding to masculines tanu-, phalgu-, babhru Tt also forms a small number of independent nouns, camd - 'dish', tanu- * body vadhd- ' bride kadru- r soma-vessel jatu- ' bat ', dhanu - ' sandbank nabhanu - ' well svasru - ' mother- in-law 1 (0. SI. svekry, La t. socrus ). Sanskrit -d in this suffix resolves itself ultimately in Indo- European into the thematic vowel -f H. Similarly % and u re- present -i - h and -u-h. In this form the parallelism of these three suffixes to the three s-suffixes -as, -is, -us, becomes clear. The simple suffix is -an, which like neuter -as appears with guna, and in the compound suffixes -in and -tin, old neuter i- and u- stems are extended by suffixal -h, in the same way as they are extended by $ in the compound suffixes -is and -us. Thus sdmi fern, is an extension of sdnu nt. (indecl.) (cf. the relation of ar el- and arcis-, etc.) and dhanu fem. ' sandbank ’ along with dhdnvan- nt. and dhanus- nt. are alternative extensions of dhanu- ' id ' (fem,, originally nt.) The two compound suffixes sometimes appear with guna (vatya 'whirlwind jihva ' tongue'), as is alternatively the case with other compound neuter suffixes, vdrivas, etc. The close similarity in function between the h- and s- suffixes in making primary action nouns is seen from the frequent instances in which the two are found side by side in words of the same meaning : tdnd, tanas ' offspring ', jar a, jar as- ' old age tanu , tdnus- ' body dhand-, dhanus, etc. Like the other primary neuter suffixes this -a has no specific meaning and stems in -d frequently occur side by side with root nouns, the extension adding nothing to the meaning: ksdp
