h. The voc. gunates the final of the stem, in masc. and fem., alike in the earlier and in the later language. In the neut., it is later allowed to be either of the same form or the unaltered stem; and this was probably the usage in the older time also; not instances enough are quotable to determine the question (AV. has u once, and VS. o once).
337. Dual. a. The later and earlier language agree in making the nom.-acc.-voc. masc. and fem. by lengthening the final of the stem. The same cases in the neuter (according to the rule given above) end later in inī and unī; but these endings are nearly unknown in the Veda (as, indeed, the cases are of only rare occurrence): AV. has inī twice (RV. perhaps once); VS. has unī once; RV. has uī from one u-stem, and ī, once shortened to i, from one or two i-stems.
b. The unvarying ending of instr.-dat.-abl., in all genders, is bhyām added to the unchanged stem.
c. The gen.-loc. of all ages add os to the stem in masc. and fem.; in neut., the later language interposes, as elsewhere in the weakest cases, a n; probably in the earlier Vedic the form would be like that of the other genders; but the only occurrence noted is one unos in AV.
338. Plural. a. The nom.-voc. masc. and fem. adds the normal ending as to the gunated stem-final, making ayas and avas. The exceptions in the Veda are very few: one word (ari) has ias in both genders, and a few feminines have īs (like ī-stems); a very few u-stems have uas. The neut. nom.-acc. ends later in īni and ūni (like āni from a: 329 c); but the Veda has ī and i (about equally frequent) much oftener than īni; and ū and (more usually) u, more than half as often as ūni.
b. The accus. masc. ends in īn and ūn, for older īns and ūns, of which plain traces remain in the Veda in nearly half the instances of occurrence, and even not infrequently in the later language, in the guise of phonetic combination (208 ff.). The accus. fem. ends in īs and ūs. But both masc. and fem. forms in ias and uas are found sparingly in the Veda.
c. The inst. of all genders adds bhis to the stem.
d. The dat.-abl. of all genders adds bhyas (in V., almost never bhias) to the stem.
e. The gen. of all genders is made alike in īnām and ūnām (of which the ā is not seldom, in the Veda, to be resolved into aam). Stems with accented final in the later language may, and in the earlier always do, throw forward the accent upon the ending.
f. The loc. of all genders adds su (as ṣu: 180) to the stem-final.
g. The accent is in accordance with the general rules already laid down, and there are no irregularities calling for special notice.
339. Examples of declension. As models of i-stems may be taken अग्नि agní m. fire; गति gáti f. gait; वारि vā́ri n. water.
