Substantives have 8 Cases viz : Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Locative, Ablative or Instrumental, Communicative and Vocative. Of these the Nomina tive singular is the same as the crude form of the word; the formation of the Nominative plural has been explained in the preceding paragraph, the remaining cases are formed by adding affixes to the Nominative.


Affixes

Singular

Plural

Nominative

a, u, e

(ಅ, ಉ, ಎ)

r, ḷu, kuḷu

(ರ್, ಳ್, ಕುಳು)

Genitive

a, ta, da

(ಅ, ತ, ದ)

re, ḷe

(ರೆ, ಳೆ)

Dative

k, g, ku, gu

(ಕ್, ಗ್, ಕು, ಗು)

reg

(ರೆಗ್)

Accusative

n, nu

(ನ್, ನು)

re, ḷen

(ರೆ, ಳೆನ್)

Locative

ḍ, ṭ, ḍu, ṭu

(ಡ್, ಟ್, ಡು, ಟು)

ḷeḍ

(ಳೆಡ್)

Ablative or instrumental

ḍt, ḍd

(ಡ್ತ್, ಡ್ದ್)

ḷeḍt, ḷeḍd

(ಳೆಡ್ತ್, ಳೆಡ್ದ್)

Communicative

ḍa, ṭa

(ಡ, ಟ)

ḷeḍa

(ಳೆಡ್)

Vocative

ā, ō

(ಆ, ಓ)

rē, ḷē

(ರೇ, ಳೇ)

There are 5 declensions or modes of forming the cases of substantives by adding the above - mentioned affixes, varying principally according to the termination of words in their crude form. They are therefore conveniently termed as declension in a (ಅ), declension in i (ಇ), declension in u (ಉ), declension in e (ಎ), declension in ụ (ಉ್)