Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c11.45

c11.45

It therefore appears that in masc. and neut. nouns the ओ is a modern innovation and that there was no distinction between the sing. and pl. cases except the nom. of nouns in ओ and उं. The true explanation therefore of the modern ओ of the pl. is that fem. nouns in आ and ई preserved this termination, since they had it in the Prâkṛits, as the minor M. dialects have done, and, the sing. and pl. forms of masc. nouns being alike, the fem. ओ was transferred to them afterwards to distinguish the pl. as is now being done to nouns in ओ and उं. Thus then the G. noun may be said to have no real Sâmânyarûpa or oblique form. Adjectives in ओ however have a form ending in ए when they are used to qualify a substantive in the instr. or old loc. case in ए as आ काम सारे माणसे कीधुं ‘ this thing was done by a good man ’, तलावने काटे छोकरा गया ‘ boys went te the margin of a tank ’; but this may be explained as a remnant of the old agreement between the noun and its adjective and सारे may be regarded as an instr. form and तलावने a loc.