+-----------+---------------------------+----------------------------+-------------------------+ | | Masculine. | Feminine. | Neuter. | +-----------+------+--------+-----------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+--------+--------+ | Meaning. | Ear. | Horse. | Gardener. | Bed. | Fireplace.| Mare. | House.| Horse. | Pearl. | +-----------+------+--------+-----------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+--------+--------+ |Sing. | | | | | | | | | | | Nom. | kan | ghoda | mali | khat | cul | ghodi | ghar | ghode | moti | | Gen. obl.| kana | ghodya | malya | khate | culi | ghodi | ghara | ghodya | motya | |Plur. | | | | | | | | | | | Nom. | kan | ghode | mali | khata | culi | ghodya | ghare | ghodi | motye | | Gen. obl.| kana | ghodya | malya | khata | culi | ghodya | ghara | ghodya | motya | +-----------+------+--------+-----------+-------+-----------+--------+-------+--------+--------+ The usual postpositions are:-- Instrumental: _ne_, plural _ni_, by. Dative: _la_, plural also _na_, to or for. Ablative: _hun_, _un_, from. Genitive: _tsa_, of. Locative: _~t_, in. We thus get the following complete modern declension of _ghar_, a house (neut.):-- Sing. Plur. Nom. ghar ghare Acc. ghar ghare Instr. gharane gharani Dat. gharas, gharala gharas, gharala, gharana Abl. gharahun, gharun gharahun Gen. gharatsa gharatsa Loc. gharat gharat The accusative is usually the same as the nominative, but when definiteness is required the dative is employed instead. The termination _ne_, with its plural _ni_, is, as explained in the article GUJARATI, really the oblique form, by origin a locative, of the _na_ or _no_, employed in Gujarati to form the genitive. The suffix _na_ of the dative plural is derived from the same word. Here it is probably a corruption of the Apabhramsa _nau_ or _naho_. The postposition la is probably a corruption of the Sanskrit _labhe_, Apabhramsa _lahi_, for the benefit (of). As regards the ablative, we have in old Marathi poetry a form corresponding to _gharahu-niya_, which explains the derivation. _Gharahu_ is a by-form of the Prakrit synthetic ablative _gharau_, to which _niya_, another oblique form of _na_, is added to define the meaning. The locative termination _~t_ is a contraction of the Pr. _anto_, Skr. antar, within. The genitive _gharatsa_ is really an adjective meaning "belonging to the house," and agrees in gender, number and case with the noun which is possessed. Thus: