144 G. A. Grierson —Essays on Bihart Declension. [No. 2, 
It is difficult to give examples out of Vidyapati, as he frequently 
lengthens a final vowel for the sake of metre, which is misleading. 
B, as a declensional oblique base. 
The correlative pronouns have each two proper declensional bases,—1, 
a singular one, and 2, a plural one. In Maithili the singular has in all cases 
acquired a non-honorific sense, and, in the case of ‘ this,’ %, ‘ that,’ 
custom has further confined it to referring to inanimate objects only. 
(Mth. Gr. §§ 70, 72, 79, 85, and 86). The plural base has in all cases 
assumed a singular honorific sense. In addition to these bases (which 
appear under similar circumstances in all Bihari dialects, vide post), the 
oblique form of the genitive is frequently used in the sense of another 
oblique declensional base. This is quite regular, for as will he seen later 
on, the postpositions attached to this base are all nouns either in the 
instrumental or locative case. Thus ii, means ‘in the middle of 
which,’ (Mg. Pr. S7cr. W liff^ *n£) in which the 
Pr. in the genitive case is (as will be seen hereafter) the direct 
origin of the oblique form 3KT. The following table shows the three 
oblique declensional forms of each of the pronouns in Maithili. 
Nom. 
Proper oblique 
Singular. 
Proper oblique Plural. 
Periphrastic 
oblique base made 
from oblique 
Genitive. 
if,‘I.’ 
Wanting. 
‘ I.’ 
Wanting. 
Wanting, but Bhojpuri 
?lf, ‘ thou.’ 
rftfY. 
Wanting. 
rFKT. 
WT% ‘ thou.’ 
Wanting. 
Wanting, but Bhojpuri 
^q^ - , ‘self.’ 
Wanting. 
Wanting, but Bhojpuri 
^q^r. 
^q*TT- 
Y, ‘ this.’ 
f%*r (f%fsr). 
‘ that.’ 
(^fiT). 
‘ who.’ 
5Tfir. 
^i^t, ^rf^r. 
#, ‘ that.’ 
rfTf^ {old 
Vid. 28, 4). 
frfsr. 
‘ who.’ 
**STf% (Mth. 
Gr. § 79). 
qsfa. 
