The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit

CONSONANT-STEM ENDINGS

The noun stems we have encountered so far (a-stems, ā-stems, ī-stems, ū-stems) all ended in vowels. Sanskrit also has nouns and adjectives with stems ending in consonants. All of these share a set of endings:

Note:

• 1) The form of the nominative singular varies; see below on ‘Final consonant clusters’.

• 2) The form of the NTR NOMVOCACC PL ending varies; most consonant stems follow the pattern of (long or short) vowel + nasal + stem-final consonant + -i. Compare the single paradigms for details.

• – These endings are shared also by monosyllabic ī- and ū-stems (–› Chapter 13).

• – Masculine and feminine consonant stems are formally identical.

• – Neuters differ from masculines in NOMVOCACC; within each number, these three cases are formally identical. – The MASC/FEM VOC SG as well as the NTR NOMVOCACC SG consist of just the stem without any ending.

• – The endings in the dual and plural largely overlap with those of ā- and also a-stems; yet note that the GEN PL ending is not the familiar -ānām, but just -ām.

• – The ending -aḥ, so far known only from the NOM SG MASC of a-stems, here also appears in the ABLGEN SG of all genders and the NOMVOCACC PL MASCFEM. Know the many cases -aḥ can appear in to avoid confusion.

There are many kinds of consonant stem: dental stems (ending in -t or -d, such as मरुत्- ‘wind’ or आपद्- ‘fall, accident’ – see below – or more specifically in -ant/-mant/-vant –› Chapter 25), s-stems (such as मनस्- ‘mind’ –› Chapter 24), n-stems (such as राजन्- ‘king’ or हस्तिन्- ‘elephant’ –› Chapter 29) and more rarely palatal stems (such as वाच्- ‘voice’, see below). While they all employ the same endings, the different stem-final consonants create different patterns of internal sandhi; also, several types show stem gradation (which will be explained in Chapter 25). Hence the various types need to be looked at individually. Dental stems display the most straightforward kind of sandhi and are thus discussed first.