236 THE DECLENSION OF NOUNS -this, dat. abl. - hhyas , loc. -su. It is possible,, but not certain that this 5 is identical with that of the nom. pL The IE plural system is complicated by two unusual features. On the one hand if this s is the sign of the plural it is distinguished from the type found in most linguistic families by being added after instead of appearing before the case terminations. In the second place the terminations of the plural are for the most part different from those that appear in the singular and this appears to be quite an unusual phenomenon. A further problem is pre- sented by Hittite. In this language the nominative plural has a form of its own, and likewise the accusative {hum antes, humandus f all ') but for the gen. dat. there appears normally a form identb cal with the gen. sg., and otherwise the inflection is undeveloped. It is uncertain to what extent this is due to Hittite innovation, but it may be an indication that the plural inflection in IE is a later development than the singular. Accusative Plural, Masc. and Fern. The ending in IE was - ns after vocalic stems, -ns after consonantal stems. This is preserved in Gothic and certain Greek dialects, notably Cretan (Gk. eA €v0epov$, vlvvs, Goth, wulfans , gastins, bropruns). In Sanskrit the accusative plural of masc. vocalic stems {-an, -in, -un, -fn) preserves this -s in sandhi (-dms, etc., before t-). In the Veda its effect is seen also before a vowel (-dm, imr ), The long vowel in Sanskrit is not original but arises in thematic stems from the analogy of the nom. pi. (-as with long vowel whence acc. - dns for - ans ). From this declension the long vowel has spread to the stems in -i, -u and -r. The ending -ns after con- sonantal stems becomes regularly -as in Sanskrit as in Greek (padds, TToSas). The acc. pi. is a weak case in Sanskrit, that is to say the termination may be accented and the stem appears in its weak form. This is in contradiction with the fact that the termination itself appears in the weak grade and it is therefore in all probability an innovation. If IE -ns in this case is de- rived from -ms the form can have arisen by the addition of the plural sign -s to the acc. sg. The feminine vocalic stems show no trace of n in Sanskru (-as, - is , -us, fs). This absence of n is shown to be IE in the case of stems in -d by the agreement of Indo-Iranian (Skt. kanyds , Av. urvard) and Germanic (Goth, gibos). Non-distinction of nominative and accusative, which characterises neuters was originally characteristic of -d (~#h) stems when these had not
