ADJECTIVES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 April 2011
Summary
281. The declension of the adjective is not distinct from that of the substantive; and if some inflected forms, which in the Sanscrit and Zend belong only to the pronouns, have, in the cognate languages, emerged from the circle of the pronouns, and extended themselves further, they have not remained with the adjectives alone, but have extended themselves to the substantives also. As regards the Greek, Latin, and Sclavonic, we have already explained at §§. 228. 248. and 274. what has been introduced from pronominal declension in those languages into general declension: we will here only further remark that the appended syllable sma, in §. 165. &c., which, in Sanscrit, characterises only the pronominal declension, may in the Pali be combined also, in several cases, with masculine and neuter substantive and adjective bases, and indeed with all bases in a, i, and u, including those which, originally terminating in a consonant, pass by augment or apocope into the vowel declension; thus the ablative and locative singular of kêsa, “hair,” is either simply kêsâ (from kêsât, see p. 300), kêsê, or, combined with sma or its variation mha, kêsa-smâ, kêsa-mhâ, kêsa-smin, kêsa-mhi. In the Lithuanian, this syllable, after dropping the s, has, in the dative and locative singular, passed over to the adjective declension, without imparting itself to that of the substantive, and without giving to the adjective the license of renouncing this appended syllable; as, géram, “bono,” geramé, “in bono.”
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- Information
- A Comparative Grammar of the Sanscrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German, and Sclavonic Languages , pp. 350 - 415Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1843