-ā, -ī, and -ū nouns
Stems that end in -ā, -ī, and -ū are almost always feminine. They follow the pattern of the feminine pronoun, which we will also study here. Since the -ū stems are the most regular and the -ā stems are the least regular, we will study them in reverse order:
-ū stems
Among the three stem types above, the -ū stems are the most regular. Here is how they behave:
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The dual endings are completely regular. The plural endings are mostly regular. The exception is the case 2 plural ending, which is just ḥ.
The singular endings are trickier:
- e (case 4 singular) → ai
- aḥ (case 5/6 singular) → āḥ
- i (case 7 singular) → ām
Note that the case 1 singular uses a visarga. Note, too, that the case 8 singular uses a short vowel. And, note that mv is written as ṃv.
-ī stems
the -ī stems are almost as regular as the -ū stems. Here is how they behave:
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The endings here are the same as the ones above. But, note that the case 1 singular does not use a visarga.
-ā stems
The -ā stems are still quite regular, but they do have some odd features:
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The plural endings follow the pattern of the nouns above. The singular and dual forms, however, are much trickier. The difference is in the stem used:
- vidyay (case 3 singular; case 6/7 dual)
- vidyāy (case 4-7 singular)
Also note the use of the -e ending, which appears in both the singular and the dual.
The feminine tad
The feminine version of tad is nearly identical to the -ā stems:
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As before, there are multiple stems:
- tay (case 3 singular; case 6/7 dual)
- tasy (case 4-7 singular)
As before, the -e ending appears in the dual. The one major difference is that the case 6 plural is tāsām, not *tānām
