Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c8.62

c8.62

As in the Pâli the dual and the dat. case are wanting. The termination of the instr. pl. is हि, the other Pâli भि having disappeared. The ablative pl. which was lost in the older dialect is made up by adding तो, Skr. तस्, to the हि of the instr. pl., which was used in Pâli for the abl., and to सु, the termination of the locative, and using हिन्तो and सुन्तो as the terminations for all nouns. This तो in the form of दो and दु is also used to form the abl. sing. of all nouns. This is according to Vararuchi. But Hemachandra gives दो and दु as the Śaurasenî terminations, and ओ and उ as those in the principal Prâkrit, which is according to the usual phonetic rules. This grammarian gives तो as an additional termination for both numbers, and extends ओ and उ to the plural also, and हिन्तो to the singular.⁸ In Prâkrit, sometimes consonants are doubled even when there is no conjunct in the original Sanskrit. Hence we have तो; and the reason why this and दो and दु or ओ and उ are extended to the plural is that in Skr. the expression made up of a noun and this termination has both senses; as ग्रामतः may mean from a village or villages. The gen. sing. स from the स्य of Sanskrit nouns in अ is generalized as in Pâli and applied to all masc. and neut. nouns; and the pl. is formed by the old Skr. term. नाम् Prâkṛitized to णं, as in the older dialect. The Pâli pronominal abl. स्मा or म्हा has disappeared and the loc. स्मि or म्हि has assumed the form of म्मि and is used for all nouns of the masc. and neut. genders as in the other language. The voc. pl. is as in Skr. and Pâli the same as the Nom. pl.