You are here
Nominal affixes
Sanskrit Nominal Declension is known as 'subanta prakaraNNam' (i.e. 'sup'-final production). The following table lists nominal grammatical affixes, known as 'sup' pratyaya. The {4.1.2: svOjasamOTchhaSHTAbhyAmbhisNebhyAmbhyasNasibhyAmbhyasNasosAmNyossup} sutra lists the abstract grammatical affixes, starting with 'su' and ending with 'p'; hence the name 'sup'. ( refer to [1] for more details)
| Case | Singular | Dual | Plural |
| Nominative (NOM) | su | O | jas |
| Accusative (ACC) | am | OT | shas |
| Instrumental (INS) | TA | bhyAm | bhis |
| Dative (DAT) | Ne | bhyAm | bhyas |
| Ablative (ABL) | Nasi | bhyAm | bhyas |
| Genitive (GEN) | Nas | os | Am |
| Locative (LOC) | Ni | os | sup |
Illustration:
As an illustration, let us consider the 'jas' Nominative-Plural (NOM-P) declension of the Masculine Nominal base 'kUpa' (well). While the abstract affix for NOM-P is 'jas', the resultant concrete declension term ('kUpAHa') is arrived at after the application of several Paninian sutras shown below:
| Step | Pattern | Sutra | Comment | Result |
| 1 | kUpa+jas | {1.4.104: vibhaktiSHcha} | identify the affix 'jas' as a Case affix - sutras {1.4.101-1.4.103} tell us how to identify the Case affixes / verb terminations applicable to each cell in the declension and conjugation tables | kUpa+jas |
| 2 | kUpa+jas | {1.3.7:chuTu} | treat the 'j' of 'jas' as an 'it' marker | kUpa+jas |
| 3 | kUpa+jas | {1.3.9:tasya lopaHa} | drop the 'it' marker found above i.e. 'j' | kUpa+as |
| 4 | kUpa+as | {1.3.4: na vibhaktO tusmAHa} | do not treat the final 's' of 'as' as an 'it' marker in a Case affix (hence effectively overrides the {1.3.3:halantyam} sutra that says the consonant final is an 'it' marker) | kUpa+as |
| 5 | kUpa+as | {6.1.97: ato guNNe} | override the {6.1.101} sutra and replace the short 'a' at the end of 'kUpa' with 'guNNa' i.e. 'a' in this case (as 'a' is followed by a 'guNNa' initial vowel in 'as') | kUpa+as |
| 6 | kUpa+as | {6.1.102: prathamayoHa pUrvasavarNNaHa} | replace the vowel-final 'a' of the base and the vowel-initial 'a' of the affix with 'A' | kUpAs |
| 7 | kUpAs |
|
apply a sequence of visarga sandhi sutras (see, for e.g., 8.3.15: kharavasAnayo visarjanIyaHa) | kUpAHa |
A few more examples of the transformation of the 'jas' abstract affix are listed below. Notice how different the concrete affixes are, even though the starting point for each declension is the same abstract affix 'jas'. This is because of the application of different sequences of sutras.
kUpa + jas ==> kUpAHa
muni + jas ==> munayaHa
sakhi + jas ==> sakhAyaHa
vAri + jas ==> vArINNi
pitRu + jas ==> pitaraHa
tad + jas ==> te
nadI + jas ==> nadyaHa
latA + jas ==> latAHa
bhavat + jas ==> bhavantaHa
ghnat + jas ==> ghnataHa
NOTES:
Note that 'nadI' (river, Fem.) and 'latA' (creeper, Fem.) are Feminine nouns, 'vAri' (water, Neut.) is a Neuter noun, 'pitRu' (father, Masc.) is Ru-ending, 'tad' (he/it/that) is a pronominal, and 'muni' (sage, Masc.) is 'i'-ending, hence different sets of sutras are applicable. However, the starting point for all the above (for the NOM-P declension) is the same abstract affix 'jas'. Note also that 'sakhi' (friend, Masc.) is 'i'-ending (and Masculine) but the result differs from that of 'muni' because a different set of rules is applicable in this special case.
Another point to note from the above is the transformation of the present participles 'ghnat' (derived from the verb 'han:2:to kill) and 'bhavat' (derived from the verb 'bhU:1:to be') with the 'jas' affix. Special rules are applicable to transform such derived nominals (present participles are described as 'shatRu'), requiring an awareness of the verb class, verb voice (Parasmaidpada, Atmanepada), and verb derivative type (frequentative, denominative, etc.), and other features of the verb root from which the nominal was derived.