of the masculine, the vowel of the ending is prolonged to आ ā; in the weakest cases it is in general struck out altogether; in the middle cases, or before a case-ending beginning with a consonant, the final न् n is dropped. The न् n is also lost in the nom. sing. of both genders (leaving आ ā as final in the masculine, अ a in the neuter).
a. The peculiar cases of the neuter follow the usual analogy (311 b): the nom.-acc.-voc. pl. have the lengthening to आ ā, as strong cases; the nom.-acc.-voc. du., as weakest cases, have the loss of अ a — but this only optionally, not necessarily.
b. In the loc. sing., also, the a may be either rejected or retained (compare the corresponding usage with ṛ-stems: 373). And after the m or v of man or van, when these are preceded by another consonant, the a is always retained, to avoid a too great accumulation of consonants.
422. The vocative sing. is in masculines the pure stem; in neuters, either this or like the nominative. The rest of the inflection requires no description.
423. As to accent, it needs only to be remarked that when, in the weakest cases, an acute á of the suffix is lost, the tone is thrown forward upon the ending.
424. Examples of declension. As such may be taken राजन् rā́jan m. king; आत्मन् ātmán m. soul, self; नामन् nā́man n. name. Thus:
| Singular: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| N. | राजा rā́jā |
आत्मा ātmā́ |
नाम nā́ma |
| A. | राजानम् rā́jānam |
आत्मानम् ātmā́nam |
नाम nā́ma |
| I. | राज्ञा rā́jñā |
आत्मना ātmánā |
नाम्ना nā́mnā |
| D. | राज्ञे rā́jñe |
आत्मने ātmáne |
नाम्ने nā́mne |
