Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c7.44

c7.44

Masculine Nouns ending in अ. The nominative singular always ends in ओ. In Sanskrit we have this form before a short अ or a sonant only. Here it is generalized. The accusative plural ends in ए as बुद्धे. When the final consonant is dropped according to the usual phonetic rules, the Sanskrit nominative and accusative plurals become exactly alike. To distinguish the one from the other, therefore, this form is appropriated in the Pâli for the latter. The ए appears to be the termination of the nominative plural of pronouns, and it is transferred to nouns in the same way as the others we have noticed above. But it is used here in an accusative sense. The forms of the singular and plural of the nominative of neuter nouns, and of the plural of many more, are the same as those of the accusative in Sanskrit, and this fact must have led to a tendency to liken the two cases in other places also. Hence the pronominal nominative came to be used like an accusative. We shall directly see this tendency to confuse the two cases manifested more clearly as regards the plural, and it may be remarked that as regards both the numbers it went on increasing at each successive stage, until in the latest Prâkṛit and in the vernaculars the distinction has entirely disappeared. The termination of the instrumental plural is एभि as in बुद्धेभि, or, with the mute element dropped, एहि which is traced to the Vedic एभिः in such forms as देवेभिः. But it may be explained otherwise. The Sanskrit बुद्धैः becomes बुद्धे by the dropping of the visarga and the change of the diphthong to ए, and this is the same as the locative singular, and is by no means distinctive of an instrumental sense. Hence to बुद्धे was added the instrumental termination भि or हि which all other nouns in Sanskrit and Pâli take. The other cases are the same as in Sanskrit, subject to the general remarks made above. The ablative and locative singulars have the new pronominal forms स्मा or म्हा and स्मि or म्हि in addition to the old ones. In the vocative singular, the final अ is optionally lengthened.