242 THE DECLENSION OF NOUNS mains confined to these cases in Slavonic : toju, dvoju, but vluku, igu, rgku. §4, The Declension Classes The complication of the Sanskrit declension consists not so much in the system of terminations thus briefly described, as in the combination of these with the various types of stem, and the alternation of the stem itself in respect of accent and apophony. The classification of the stem types and the de- clensions based on them falls naturally into five main divisions : (1) consonantal stems, (2) stems in -r, (3) stems in i, u, (4) stems in d, t, u , (5) stems in -a (thematic stems). After the practice of the grammar of the classical languages, and also for reasons of convenience, the descriptive grammars normally deal with these classes in the reverse order to that given here. Since however the normal scheme of terminations as described above appears most clearly in the consonantal declension, and since the thematic declension is the most aberrant from this, having adopted a variety of special declensional forms from the pronouns, it is more convenient from the point of view of comparative gram- mar to proceed in this order. §5. Consonantal Stems The consonantal stems consist of the root stems (_ pad etc.) and derivative stems in -n, -nt t - s , etc. The latter fall into tw r o classes, neuters and masculine-feminines. The particulars of their formation, and the mutual relation of the tw r o classes have already been dealt with. The inflection of the neuters and non- neuters is distinguished only in the nom. and acc. In this re- spect the consonantal stems differ from the stems in i and u (mddhvas : stinds), and also from the practice of certain other languages with consonantal stems (Gk. ov8a to?, dyd/xajos*, neut. : (frepovros , tt ot/xeVo?, masc.). The declension of these stems calls for little extra comment. The normal endings are added with little modification throughout this declension. The special development of Sanskrit phonetics cause some complica- tion (e.g, vis- * settlement ' : nom. vit } acc. visam , instr. pi. vidbhis , loc. pi. (vedic) viksu) but this aspect of the problem belongs more properly to phonetics than to morphology. For the rest the complications that occur in this class have already been described under the headings of (1) Accent and Apophony
