Ferramentas de sânscrito

Declinação de substantivos terminados em consoante:
Regular nouns ending with ṇ, k, t, th, p and bh

Contents

• Introduction
• General case endings
• General declension process
• Nouns ending with ṇ
• Regular nouns ending with k
• Regular nouns ending with dentals: t, th, d and dh
• Regular nouns ending with labials: p and bh
• Nouns that undergo aspiration throwback

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Introduction

In this chapter, we begin to discuss the declension of nouns ending in consonant.

General case endings

The declension of most nouns that end in a consonant in Sanskrit follows a general set of case endings.

Below are the tables of endings for nouns and adjectives ending in consonant¹Müller, "A Sanskrit grammar for beginners", p. 64, §152:

Endings for masculine and feminine nouns ending in consonant

Endings for neuter nouns ending in consonant

General declension process

In the cases that will be discussed in this chapter, the declension of a regular noun ending in consonant will consist in adding the appropriate ending from the tables shown above to the prātipadika (crude/uninflected form) of the noun. Very often, in the process of combination of the prātipadika and the ending, there will be phonetic changes to the prātipadika or to the ending due to Sandhi rules.

For masculine, feminine and neuter nouns, in the cases where the ending begins with a vowel (except in the Nominative/Accusative/Vocative plural of the neuter declension -- see number 3 below), the prātipadika is simply attached to the ending with no change. In the remaining grammatical cases, there are basically 3 changes that may happen:

1) In the cases that have "no ending" (namely, the Nominative/Vocative singular in the masculine/feminine table, and the Nominative/Vocative/Accusative singular in the neuter table), the final form is simply the prātipadika of the noun. But there are cases where the last consonant of the prātipadika needs to change in order to produce the correct final form (due to the 3rd Rule of Consonant Sandhi).

2) In the cases where the ending begins with a consonant, there may be changes due to Sandhi rules. There are just two kinds of endings that begin with consonant: the ones that begin with "bh" (namely, the dual and plural of the Instrumental, Dative and Ablative), and the Locative plural (which is "su").

3) For neuter nouns, there is a particular rule that is always followed in the declension of neuter nouns ending in consonant. We are going to explain it later on, but we will highlight it here:

When the Nominative/Accusative/Vocative plural ending ("i") is added to a neuter base, a nasal consonant is added before the final consonant of the base. This nasal is determined by the consonant which follows it: ṅ before gutturals, ñ before palatals, ṇ before linguals, n before dentals, m before labials and ṃ before sibilants and h. Neuters ending in a nasal or a semivowel do not insert this nasal in the plural.

In short, the cases where the combination between the prātipadika and the ending may produce changes are: 1) the cases with "no ending", 2) the cases where the ending begins with "bh", 3) the Locative plural and 4) for neuter bases, the Nominative/Vocative/Accusative plural.

For example, suppose that you want to decline the masculine version of the noun sarvaśak (which means "omnipotent") in the Accusative singular. From the tables above, the masculine/feminine Accusative singular ending is am. Therefore, the Accusative singular of sarvaśak is simply sarvaśak + am = sarvaśakam. On the other hand, suppose that you want to decline it in the Locative plural. The Locative singular ending is su. But, when you add su to sarvaśak, you get sarvaśakṣu (the original ending "su" changes to "ṣu" to obey the 16th Rule of Consonant Sandhi). The complete declension tables of sarvaśak are shown later on in this chapter.

Now, we are going to cover various consonant terminations, to see how the declension is done in each situation.

Nouns ending with ṇ

Nouns ending in ṇ are very rare. All nouns in ṇ follow the model of sugaṇ (which can mean "a ready reckoner", according to Müller, or "easy to be calculated", according to Monier-Williams)²Müller, "A Sanskrit grammar for beginners", p. 65, §154. Below are its declension tables. In the tables below, we highlighted the case endings in red:

Basically, all that was done was take the prātipadika of the noun, which is "sugaṇ", and attach it to the respective general endings for nouns ending in consonant. The only change that happened with respect to the general endings was in the Locative plural: as you can see, in the two tables of sugaṇ, there is an additional optional form sugaṇṭsu for the Locative plural. The appearance of this optional form can be explained by the 1^st sub-rule of the 20th Rule of Consonant Sandhi. Let's transcribe here what this sub-rule says:

20th Rule of Consonant Sandhi
(1^st sub-rule) When "ṅ" and "ṇ" are followed by a Sibilant (ś, ṣ or s), "k" and "ṭ" are respectively suffixed to the former optionally.

The Sandhi rule above says that, if there is an "ṅ" followed by a sibilant (ś, ṣ or s), "k" is optionally placed after the "ṅ"; and, similarly, if there is an "ṇ" followed by a sibilant, "ṭ" is optionally placed after the "ṇ".

In our case, to form the Locative plural, sugaṇ is attached to su to form sugaṇsu. As you can see, in sugaṇsu, there is an "ṇ" followed by a sibilant ("s"). So, the Sandhi rule above applies, and a "ṭ" is optionally placed after the "ṇ". Therefore, sugaṇsu optionally becomes sugaṇṭsu.

Regular nouns ending with k

Nouns ending in k follow the basic process that we outlined in the section "General declension process" above. All nouns in "k" are declined like sarvaśak (which means "omnipotent"). The declension of sarvaśak (masculine, feminine and neuter) is shown below³Müller, "A Sanskrit grammar for beginners", p. 66, §155. In the tables below, we highlighted in red the part of the word that varies according to the declension:

There are 3 things to notice:

1) In the cases where the ending begins with "bh", the final consonant (k) changes to "g" when it is attached to the ending, in order to obey the 2nd Rule of Consonant Sandhi. » This rule states that any final "hard" consonant placed before a "soft" consonant is changed to the respective "soft" consonant. In this case, we have a "hard" consonant (the "k" of sarvaśak) followed by a "soft" consonant (the "bh" of the ending). Therefore, "k" is changed to the respective "soft" consonant, which is "g".

2) In the Locative plural, the "su" changed to "ṣu" to obey the 16th Rule of Consonant Sandhi. » This rule states that the consonant "s" belonging to a Termination is obligatorily changed to "ṣ" when preceded by a Vowel (except "a" and "ā"), a Semivowel, a Guttural or "h". In this case, we have a base that ends with the guttural consonant "k" (sarvaśak) being attached to a termination beginning with "s" ("su"); in other words, we have a situation where the consonant "s" belonging to a termination is preceded by a guttural. Therefore, this Sandhi rule applies here, and the "s" changes to "ṣ".

3) In the neuter declension: In the Nominative/Accusative/Vocative plural, when sarvaśak is attached to the ending "i", the result is not sarvaśaki, but sarvaśaṅki. Why? This is because of a particular rule that is always followed by neuter nouns/adjectives ending with consonant (we stated this rule in the section "General declension process" of this chapter). For the sake of convenience, we are going to state that rule once more:When the Nominative/Accusative/Vocative plural ending ("i") is added to a neuter base, a nasal consonant is added before the final consonant of the base. This nasal is determined by the consonant which follows it: ṅ before gutturals, ñ before palatals, ṇ before linguals, n before dentals, m before labials and ṃ before sibilants and h. Neuters ending in a nasal or a semivowel do not insert this nasal in the plural. In this case, since we are adding "i" to the neuter base sarvaśak, a nasal consonant will be added before the final consonant of the base. That is, a nasal consonant will be added before the final "k" of sarvaśak. Also according to the rule, this nasal will be "ṅ", because a guttural ("k") will follow it. So, the final result is sarvaśaṅki.

Note: According to Müller³Müller, "A Sanskrit grammar for beginners", p. 66, §155, the rules for sarvaśak are also valid for nouns ending in "kh", "g" and "gh" (the other gutturals). But these nouns are so rare that we won't spend much time on them here. We couldn't even find an example of noun ending in "kh" in the Monier-Williams dictionary. Müller gives the example of citralikh (meaning "painter"). The only difference for nouns ending in "kh", "g" and "gh" with respect to nouns ending in "k" is that, in the cases where there is "no ending" (namely, the Nominative/Vocative singular in the masculine/feminine endings, and the Nominative/Vocative/Accusative singular in the neuter endings), the final kh/g/gh becomes "k" to obey the 3rd Rule of Consonant Sandhi. For example, the masculine Nominative singular of citralikh is citralik.

Regular nouns ending with dentals: t, th, d and dh

As examples of regular nouns ending with dentals, we are going to show you the declension tables of (respectively) harit (meaning "green"), madhumath (a name of Viṣṇu), upaniṣad and samidh (meaning "burning"). The declension tables are shown below.

There are 4 things to notice in the declension tables:

1) In the cases that have "no ending" (namely, the Nominative/Vocative singular in the masculine/feminine endings, and the Nominative/Vocative/Accusative singular in the neuter endings), the final th/d/dh of the prātipadika changes to "t" in order to obey the 3rd Rule of Consonant Sandhi. For example, the Nominative singular of samidh is samit (the final "dh" changed to "t").

2) In the cases where the ending begins with "bh", the final t/th/dh of the prātipadika changes to "d" when it is attached to the ending. For example, the Instrumental dual of harit is haridbhyām.

3) In the Locative plural (where the ending is "su"), the final consonant of the prātipadika is changed to "t" when it is attached to the ending. For example, the Locative plural of upaniṣad is upaniṣatsu.

4) In the neuter declension: In the Nominative/Accusative/Vocative plural, the nasal "n" is added before the last consonant of the prātipadika. For example, the Nominative plural of harit is harinti.

In the tables below, we highlighted in red the part of the word that varies according to the declension.

Madhumath (masculine)

Upaniṣad (feminine)

Regular nouns ending with labials: p and bh

As examples of regular nouns ending with labials, we are going to show you the declension tables of (respectively) gup (meaning "guardian") and kakubh (meaning "a peak, summit"). In the tables below, we highlighted in red the part of the word that varies according to the declension.

Kakubh (feminine)

There are 4 things to notice in the declension tables:

1) In kakubh, in the Nominative/Vocative singular, the final "bh" of the prātipadika changes to "p" in order to obey the 3rd Rule of Consonant Sandhi. For example, the Nominative singular of kakubh is kakup (the final "bh" changed to "p").

2) In both gup and kakubh, in the cases where the ending begins with "bh", the final consonant of the prātipadika changes to "b" when it is attached to the ending. For example, the Instrumental dual of gup is gubbhyām.

3) In kakubh, in the Locative plural (where the ending is "su"), the final "bh" of the prātipadika is changed to "p" when it is attached to the ending (producing kakupsu).

4) In the neuter declension of gup, in the Nominative/Accusative/Vocative plural, the nasal "m" is added before the last consonant of the prātipadika (producing gumpi).

Note: According to Müller, the same rules that apply for nouns in "p" and "bh" are also valid for nouns ending in "b" and "ph" (the other labials). But these nouns are so rare that we won't spend any time on them here. We couldn't even find an example of noun ending in "ph" in the Monier-Williams dictionary, and Müller also doesn't provide any example of such nouns. But nouns ending in "b" and "ph" would undergo the exact same changes described for kakubh above.

Nouns that undergo aspiration throwback

There are some exceptions to the rules given above for nouns ending in dh. For example, take a look at the declension of budh (meaning "wise"):

Notice that, in the cases where "budh" is attached to "no ending" (the Nominative/Vocative singular of the masculine/feminine, and the Nominative/Accusative/Vocative of the neuter), it becomes "bhut", and not "but", as would be expected by the rules mentioned previously. Also, in the Locative plural, where "budh" is attached to "su", the final result is "bhutsu", and not "butsu". This happens because of an obscure Sandhi rule which we will transcribe here⁴Müller, "A Sanskrit grammar for beginners", p. 37, §93:

Aspiration throwback
If h, gh, ḍh, dh or bh stand at the end of a syllable which begins with g, ḍ, d or b, and lose their aspiration as final or otherwise, the initial consonants g, ḍ, d or b are changed into gh, ḍh, dh, bh.

Let's see if "budh" meets the criteria of this Sandhi rule: First of all, it contains a "dh" standing at the end of a syllable which begins with "b" (this syllable is simply "budh"). Second of all, in both the Locative plural and the cases with "no ending", the final "dh" of "budh" is changed to "t". So, in both cases, this "dh" loses its aspiration. Therefore, the Sandhi rule applies to "budh", and the initial consonant "b" is changed into "bh", producing "bhut". This gives "bhut" for the cases with "no ending", and "bhutsu" for the Locative plural.

The effect of this Sandhi rule is often called aspiration throwback, because the aspiration of the final consonant is "thrown back" at the previous consonant.

Viśvagudh ("all-enveloping") is another example of adjective that undergoes aspiration throwback: it contains a "dh" standing at the end of a syllable which begins with "g" (this syllable is "gudh"), and, just like "budh", this "dh" loses its aspiration in the cases with "no ending", and in the Locative plural. So, in these grammatical cases, it becomes "viśvaghut" and "viśvaghutsu", respectively. Click here if you want to see the whole declension tables of viśvagudh.

Note: As should be clear from reading the Sandhi rule, it also applies to nouns ending in h, gh, ḍh or bh (not just dh). When we talk about nouns ending with h in the next chapter, another example of aspiration throwback will come up.

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