THE DECLENSION OF NOUNS 247 nounced as a dissyllable : naiis ( navus ) and in this respect it can be compared directly with rayis, The long diphthong is a later contraction of these vowels ia hiatus. The acc. sg. is an innovation like the r&yam which supplants rayttn. The stem an- in which two different words have been con- fused (an- ' pious ', *ali- 4 alien, hostile ') inflects according to this type, although adjectival in sense. Since there are found elsewhere in IE examples of old neuters being adapted to this use without the usual modification of the stem, its character- istic inflection (gen. sg. aryas } etc.) might be explained by its being an old neuter of this type transferred to the masculine. If it were originally an adjective it would have to be assumed that it inflected originally like sdkhi (I. sakhyd, D. sdkhye ) and that from these weak forms the type of inflection characteristic of this class has spread to the nom. pi. (ary as like pasvds), On the whole the absence of any trace of the strong form of the suffix makes the first explanation more probable. The same doubt exists in the case of pdti-. In the meaning 4 lord ' this word follows the normal inflection (type agni -), but in the meaning f husband ' it forms cases after this style (dat. pdtye). The accent and the - n - of the derivative pdtni ' wife ' might be held to indicate an old alternating neuter ; on the other hand the nom. pi. is always normal and weak cases of this type are shown also by the adjectival sdkhi-. The stem jani- 1 woman ' has a gen. sg. jdnyus with a termination - us which appears also in sdkhyus, pdtyus and which is clearly borrowed from the nouns of relationship ( pitas , etc.). In all three cases the normal gen. ending -as has been replaced. Avestan has janyois, a compromise form replacing *janyas. This type of genitive inflection indicates that the stem is an old neuter transferred to the feminine. There existed an alternative way of inflecting the neuters of this class in IE, by the employment of the heteroclitic w-suffix In the few neuter i-stems that remain this n replaces the i- suffix ( dksi , aksnas) , so that these stems are in the main re- moved from this declension. On the other hand the neuter stems in -u add this -w- to the stem before the vocalic weak ter- minations : dat. sg. madhune, gen.-abl. mddhunas , sammas, drunas , loc. mddhuni , vastuni , nom. acc. du. janum ‘ knees gen. loc. du. janunos. Similar forms in other languages show that this practice is ancient (Gk. gen. sg. yovaros for *gonwnto$, 1
