Blair Collection > Celtic studies

Case-Endings of Nouns. 45
of the first declension, the stem vowel and ending combine to ai,
which, as in the genitive, passes into ce. We have e%adence
of this passage in the Senatus Considtum de Bacchanalibiis,
where we find tabelai datai for tahelloe datoe. The i of the case-
ending has absorbed the u of the a-stems of the second Latin
declension in us — populi, domini; but in Old Latin it was poplw,
from jwplo-i, etc. On old inscriptions we find, instead of i, the
anomalous nom. plur. ending eis = is: hisce magistreis.
Neuter noiins fonn their nom. and ace. plural in a, which in
the a- stems of the second declension in the Greek and Latin is
afiixcd in place of the stem vowel o, w, which is dropped — Swp-a,
dona; in the third declension the a is affixed without dropping
the declension vowel — 'iSpi-a, mari-a; this is also the case in the
fourth Latin declension — cornu-a.
According to Bopp the plm-al ending as is merely " an
extension of the singular nominative sign s, so that there lies in
the extension of the case suffix a symbolical indication of plu-
rality". Tliis seems to imply that the a of the ending is in reahty
the plural sign. This affiDrds a simple explanation of the circum-
stance that, the nom. ace. and voc. pbar. of neuter nouns are
formed by dropping the nominative s, which has a certain
positive gender character. Grimm and other philologists believe
the true sign of the plural to be s. Many forcible reasons may
be given in support of this view, which, however, cannot find a
place here. The plural ending i may be looked upon as the
pronominal ending, Skr. <5 = a primitive ai, Lith. and Goth, ai,
Gr. ot, Slav, i, which invaded the substantives.
GOTHIC. All masculines and feminines both of the weak and
strong declensions end in s in the Gothic. The masc. and fern,
a-stems of the strong declension end in 6s, which represents the
Sanskrit as, the long vowel of the Gothic being the result of a
contraction of the stem and case-ending vowels. The t-stems
end in eis; the ?i-stems in yus (for ius). The ending of the masc.
and fem. of the weak declension is ns, which is directly affixed
to the stem ; the n is the characteristic sign of the weak declen-
sion, and, as has been pointed out at p. '25, is added to all the
cases except the nom. sing, and dat. plur. All the neuters end in
a; those of the weak declension having the characteristic n before
the a. The following paradigm will illustrate these rules : —
Strong declension.
A-STEMS. l-STEMS. U-STEMS.
Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur.
Masc. fisks . . . fiskos balgs . . . balgeis sunus . . , sunyus
Fem. giba . . . gibus ansts . . . ansteis handus . . handyua
Neat, vaurd . . . vaurda faihu . . .