Editing Declension (section)

==Sanskrit==
{{Main|Sanskrit nouns}}
[[Sanskrit]], another Indo-European language, has eight cases: [[nominative]], [[vocative case|vocative]], [[accusative case|accusative]], [[genitive]], [[dative case|dative]], [[ablative case|ablative]], [[locative case|locative]] and [[instrumental case|instrumental]].<ref>[[James Clackson]] (2007) [https://books.google.com/books?id=DJDjNp6wODoC&pg=PA90 ''Indo-European linguistics: an introduction''], p.90</ref> Some do not count vocative as a separate case, despite it having a distinctive ending in the singular, but consider it as a different use of the nominative.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Huet |first1=Gérard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t2f1hneiV08C&pg=PA68 |title=Sanskrit Computational Linguistics: First and Second International Symposia Rocquencourt, France, October 29-31, 2007 Providence, RI, USA, May 15-17, 2008, Revised Selected Papers |last2=Kulkarni |first2=Amba |last3=Scharf |first3=Peter |date=2009-03-09 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3-642-00154-3 |language=en}}</ref>

Sanskrit grammatical cases have been analyzed extensively. The grammarian [[Pāṇini]] identified six semantic [[Thematic relation|roles]] or ''karaka'', which correspond closely to the eight cases:<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Verhagen |first1=Pieter Cornelis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5vmaX_JQzc4C&pg=PA281 |title=Sanskrit Grammatical Literature in Tibet - a Study of the Indo-Tibetan Canonical Literature on Sanskrit Grammar and the Development of Sanskrit Studies in Tibet |last2=Bronkhorst |first2=Johannes |date=2001 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-11882-9 |language=en}}</ref>
* agent ({{transliteration|sa|kartṛ}}, related to the nominative)
* patient ({{transliteration|sa|karman}}, related to the accusative)
* means ({{transliteration|sa|karaṇa}}, related to the instrumental)
* recipient ({{transliteration|sa|sampradāna}}, related to the dative)
* source ({{transliteration|sa|apādāna}}, related to the ablative)
*relation ({{transliteration|sa|sambandha}}, related to genitive)
* locus ({{transliteration|sa|adhikaraṇa}}, related to the locative)
* address ({{transliteration|sa|sambodhana}}, related to the vocative)
For example, consider the following sentence:

{{interlinear|indent=3
| {{transliteration|sa|vṛkṣ-āt}} {{transliteration|sa|parṇ-aṁ}} {{transliteration|sa|bhūm-āu}} {{transliteration|sa|patati}}
| {from the tree} {a leaf} {to the ground} falls
| "a leaf falls from the tree to the ground"}}

Here ''leaf'' is the agent, ''tree'' is the source, and ''ground'' is the locus. The endings ''-aṁ'', ''-at'', ''-āu'' mark the cases associated with these meanings.

Verse 37 of the Rāmarakṣāstotram gives an example of all 8 types of declensions in Sanskrit for the singular proper noun Rāma.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shrirama RakshA Stotram |url=https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_raama/rraksha.html |access-date=2023-12-19 |website=sanskritdocuments.org}}</ref>

<!-- This is an interesting but lesser known mnemonic used to remember the declension for singular masculine nouns ending with -a.

I found some blogs and non-ISBN books discussing this but credible scholarly articles are harder to find.

I added this example because I felt that the other examples were insufficient or lacked comparision, and the 'English-speaking perspective' uses made up endings.   --><!-- 
I suggest adding more examples from other real languages that allow comparision of the same word in context for all possible cases. -->{| class="wikitable"
!Verse
!Case
!Translation and remarks
|-
|'''Rāmo''' rājamaṇiḥ
|Nominative
|''Rāma is a jewel among kings''
The case declension here is ''Rāmaḥ'' but the [[visarga]] has undergone [[sandhi]]. 
|-
|sadā vijayate '''Rāmaṃ''' rameśaṃ bhaje
|Accusative
|''Ever victorious, I worship that Rāma who is Ramā's lord.''
Both words '<nowiki/>''Rāma Rameśa'<nowiki/>'' are individually declined as '''rāmaṃ rameśaṃ''
|-
|'''Rāmeṇā'''bhihatā niśācaracamū
|Instrumental
|''Rāma, by whose hands are the armies of demons annhiliated''
''Rāmeṇa'' is the declension that underwent sandhi with the word ''abhihatā''
|-
|'''Rāmāya''' tasmai namaḥ
|Dative
|''I bow to that Rāma.''
Dative case is used here to show that ''Rāma'' is the receiver of the reverence.
|-
|'''Rāmā'''nnāsti parāyaṇaṃ parataraṃ
|Ablative
|''There is no better support than Rāma''
The declension here is ''Rāmāt'' that has undergone sandhi with ''nāsti.''

Ablative case is also used for comparisons in Sanskrit
|-
|'''Rāmasya''' dāso’smyahaṃ
|Genitive
|''I am a servant of Rāma.''
Normal declension without sandhi.
|-
|'''Rāme''' cittalayaḥ sadā bhavatu me
|Locative
|''Let my thoughts always be focused on Rāma.''
Locative case to indicate the 'focus of thoughts'
|-
|'''Bho Rāma''' māmuddhara!
|Vocative
|''O'' ''Rāma save me!''
Vocative case uses the plain stem, unlike Nominative which adds a visarga.
Sometimes vocative is considered to be a different use of nominative.<ref name=":1" />
|}