Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c7.47

c7.47

—Nouns ending in a consonant. There can be no consonantal declension proper, since a final consonant is dropped, and the noun treated as one ending in the preceding vowel. But relics of the Sanskrit forms of the consonantal bases are preserved and used along with the others. In the declension of the noun आत्मन् there are two new bases अत्त and अत्तन, generalized from the forms of the singular of the Sanskrit nominative and of the instrumental and others आत्मा and आत्मना &c. and declined like nouns in अ. The first is used in the singular of the accusative and the plurals of the genitive and locative which are अत्तं, अत्तानं and अत्तेसु; and the second in the plural of the instrumental which is अत्तनेहि-भि. The remaining forms are old, the portion आत्म being corrupted to अत्त; they are अत्ता nominative singular, अत्तानो nominative and accusative plural, अत्तानं accusative singular, अत्तना instrumental singular, अत्तनो genitive singular, and अत्तनि locative singular. The vocatives is अत्त or अत्ता, like that of nouns in अ.