-a stems

In the previous lesson, we learned about the basic endings that nominal stems use. Different stem families will change these endings in small ways.

Of all of the stem families, the one that changes them the most is the family of -a stems (akārantāni, “ending in -a”). Stems in this family are either masculine or neuter.

Most of Sanskrit's nominal stems end in the vowel -a, so it's important to know this family well. Does that mean you should memorize these endings? No. Just focus on their general patterns.

Masculine endings

First, let's study the 24 masculine endings for the -a stem. Let's use the masculine noun stem gaja, which means “elephant”:

 SingularDualPlural
Case 1गजः
gajaḥ
गजौ
gajau
गजाः
gajāḥ
Case 2गजम्
gajam
गजौ
gajau
गजान्
gajān
Case 3गजेन
gajena
गजाभ्याम्
gajābhyām
गजैः
gajaiḥ
Case 4गजाय
gajāya
गजाभ्याम्
gajābhyām
गजेभ्यः
gajebhyaḥ
Case 5गजात्
gajāt
गजाभ्याम्
gajābhyām
गजेभ्यः
gajebhyaḥ
Case 6गजस्य
gajasya
गजयोः
gajayoḥ
गजानाम्
gajānām
Case 7गजे
gaje
गजयोः
gajayoḥ
गजेषु
gajeṣu
Case 8गज
gaja
गजौ
gajau
गजाः
gajāḥ

In the singular, the endings we use are very different from the basic nominal endings. Here is a comparison:

  • मनसा → गजेन
    manasā → gajena

  • मनसे → गजाय
    manase → gajāya

  • मनसः → गजात्
    manasaḥ → gajāt

  • मनसः → गजस्य
    manasaḥ → gajasya

Thankfully, the endings in the dual and plural are mostly similar to the basic endings.

Neuter endings

In the previous lesson, we learned that neuter endings and masculine endings are usually very similar. For the -a stems, the endings differ only in cases 1, 2, and 8.

Here is the neuter noun phala in cases 1, 2, and 8. In all other cases, phala uses the same endings as gaja:

 SingularDualPlural
Case 1फलम्
phalam
फले
phale
फलानि
phalāni
Case 2फलम्
phalam
फले
phale
फलानि
phalāni
Case 8फल
phala
फले
phale
फलानि
phalāni

These words follow the basic pattern we learned about in the previous lesson. Specifically, notice that the dual forms follow normal sandhi rules:

  • फल + ई → फले
    phala + ī → phale

And that the word phalāni lengthens its vowel and uses an extra nasal sound, just as we saw with manāṃsi:

  • मनस् + इ → मनांसि
    manas + i → manāṃsi

  • फल + इ → फलानि
    phala + i → phalāni

However, one small change is that the singular of cases 1 and 2 uses the ending -m:

  • फल + म् → फलम्
    phala + m → phalam

Sandhi changes

Some of the noun endings above use the consonant sound n. If n is not at the end of a word, it might change due to a complex sandhi rule:

  • ग्रामेन → ग्रामेण
    grāmena → grāmeṇa
    with the village

  • विषेन → विषेण
    viṣena → viṣeṇa
    with poison

Roughly, the rule is that the letters r and causes n to change to . This change can occur even if the two sounds are separated by vowels, “lip” consonants like p and m, and a few others.

Review

a is the most common vowel in Sanskrit, and the -a stems are the most common stem family. In the next few lessons, we'll learn about the other stem families.

  1. Many of the endings used by the -a stem have multiple meanings. Give an example of one of these endings. What meanings can it express?

  2. In the -a family, masculine and neuter endings are often identical. Which five cases are identical for both genders?