2. Nāmakappa (Noun chapter)

Note

nāma means “name” and in this text it is used to refer to “nouns”. This chapter talks about the different types of nouns and how they are inflected to form words that are used in sentences.

The shape of inflection of nouns depend on their intrinsic characteristic (gender) and extrinsic characteristics (multiplicity, and inflection form).

The gender of a noun is represented by the following symbols:

symbol	gender	meaning
🚹	pulliṅga	masculine
🚺	itthiliṅga	feminine
🚻	napuṁsakaliṅga	neuter
⚧️	sabbaliṅga	genderless or all genders

Nouns, when used in words, can denote multiplicity (grammatical number: singular or plural), through these symbols:

symbol	multiplicity	meaning
⨀	ekavacana	singular
⨂	bahuvacana	plural

Nouns, when used in words, can be in one of 7 inflection forms (see §55 Si yo, aṃ yo, nā hi, sa naṃ, smā hi, sa naṃ, smiṃ su):

symbol	inflection form
①	paṭhamā (“first”)
②	dutiyā (“second”)
③	tatiyā (“third”)
④	catutthī (“fourth”)
⑤	pañcamī (“fifth”)
⑥	chaṭṭhī (“sixth”)
⑦	sattamī (“seventh”)

For the remainder of this text, the inflection of a noun is symbolised using a pseudo-function notation. If x represents the lemma of a noun (it’s base form), and x is masculine (🚹), singular (⨀), and in the first form (①), then the inflection of x will be denoted by:

🚹①⨀(x)

The five sections of the noun chapter

What each section of the Nāmakappa covers, with its sutta range.

flowchart LR
  N(["Nāmakappa §52–§270"]) --> S1["Paṭhamakaṇḍa §52–§119<br/>the terms and the inflections §52–§60,<br/>the forms of the ā, i, u, go and a lemmas"]
  N --> S2["Dutiyakaṇḍa §120–§160<br/>amha and tumha, the ntu lemmas, numerals,<br/>rāja, puma, kamma"]
  N --> S3["Tatiyakaṇḍa §161–§210<br/>the pronouns, the mano-group, gacchanta,<br/>brahma, atta, sakha, rāja, satthu, pitu"]
  N --> S4["Catutthakaṇḍa §211–§246<br/>atta, the neuter, the feminine ī, kiṃ, ima and eta,<br/>the feminine suffixes §237–§243, the vocative §244–§246"]
  N --> S5["Pañcamakaṇḍa §247–§270<br/>the suffixes to, tra, dā … §247–§260<br/>the comparatives §261–§268"]

The letter names of the lemmas

Kaccāyana names classes of lemmas by single syllables, which the rules then use as conditions.

flowchart LR
  L(["a lemma, liṅga §53–§54<br/>takes the inflections si yo … smiṃ su §55"]) --> M["masculine and neuter lemmas in i, ī → jha §58"]
  L --> U["masculine and neuter lemmas in u, ū → la §58"]
  L --> F["feminine lemmas in i, ī, u, ū → pa §59"]
  L --> A["feminine lemmas in ā → gha §60"]
  L --> G["the si of the vocative → ga §57"]

Sections

• Paṭhamakaṇḍa (First Section) (§52–§119)
• Dutiyakaṇḍa (Second Section) (§120–§160)
• Tatiyakaṇḍa (Third Section) (§161–§210)
• Catutthakaṇḍa (Fourth Section) (§211–§246)
• Pañcamakaṇḍa (Fifth Section) (§247–§270)