The Cambridge Introduction to Sanskrit

Ī- AND Ū-STEMS

Chapter 9 introduced ā-stems. There are two more stems ending in long vowels, namely ī- and ū-stems. Nouns belonging to these stems also are exclusively feminine, and furthermore have endings that are very similar to those of ā-stems. It thus is helpful to look at them in comparison with each other.

There are two varieties of both ī- and ū-stems: regular and monosyllabic or ‘root’ stems. Look over the three paradigms given overleaf and read the notes intended to help with memorisation. (ūstems are entirely parallel to ī-stems and will be discussed further down.)

REGULAR Ī-STEMS

In their endings, these greatly overlap with ā-stems; yet they diverge in the VOC SG and the NOMVOC ACC DU. Also, while ā-stems add a -y- between stem and ending in INSTRDATABLGENLOC SG, ī-stems add the ending right to their stem. Where endings begin with a vowel, internal sandhi turns stem-final ī into y (hence nady-ā etc.). In the NOM PL, the same ending (-aḥ) is employed in both ā- and īstems. It combines with stem-final -ā to give *-ā-aḥ > -āḥ, and with stem-final -ī to give *-ī-aḥ >-yaḥ.

ROOT Ī-STEMS

These can be recognised by the fact that, without any endings, they have just one syllable. They differ from regular ī-stems in some case endings: the NOM SG ends in -ḥ; the DATABLGENLOC SG and GEN PL may have the same endings as ā- and regular ī-stems (giving धियै, धियः, धियाम्, see shaded fields) or also alternative endings (धिये, धियः, धियि,). As we will see in Chapter 15, these alternative endings are those of consonant stems. They furthermore differ from regular ī-stems in that, before an ending that begins with a vowel, the stem-final -ī changes not into a -y-, but into -iy- (hence धिया rather than +ध्या), which minimises the number of forms consisting of just one syllable.

Ū-STEMS

Once we are familiar with ī-stems, ū-stems are easy to memorise, given their formal parallels to ī-stems. Here, too, there are regular and root-stems.