Almost the only old case that has survived throughout the declension of both languages is the general oblique. This is used for any oblique case, the particular case required being as a rule further defined by the help of a postposition. The general oblique case, without any defining postposition, is specially employed for the case of the agent. There are also examples of the survival of the old locative and of the old ablative.
In Lahnda the final short vowel of the weak forms has been dropped, but in some cases the final u of the masculine and the final i of the feminine have been preserved by epenthesis. The Lahnda forms of the nominative plural and of the various oblique forms are identical with those found in Panjabi. In both lan guages the accusative case is the same as the nominative, unless special definiteness is required, when the dative is employed in its place. The agent case is the oblique form without any postposi tion. All the postpositions are added to the oblique form. The genitive is really a possessive adjective and agrees with the per son or thing possessed in gender, number and case.
An adjective agrees with its qualified noun in gender, number and case. In Lahnda the only adjectives which change in these re spects are strong adjectives in a. In Sindhi weak forms in u also change the u to e or a in the feminine. The plural and oblique forms are made as in the case of nouns. If a postposition is used with the noun it is not also used with the adjective. Comparison is effected by putting the noun with which comparison is made in the ablative case. Sometimes special postpositions are employed for this form of the ablative.
The north-western group of Indo-Aryan vernaculars, Sindhi, Lahnda and Kashmiri, made free use of pronominal suffixes. In Kashmiri these are added only to verbs, but in the other two languages they are also added to nouns. These suffixes take the place of personal pronouns in various cases.
All these suffixes are remnants of the full pronominal forms. In all cases they can be at once explained by a reference to the originals in Dardic rather than to those of other Indo-Aryan languages.
in the present participle and, in Sindhi, also in the conjunctive participle, the present subjunctive, and imperative. The two lat ter are the only original synthetic tenses which have survived in Sindhi, but in Lahnda the old synthetic future is also in common use. Both languages have a passive voice formed by adding ij or ij to the root. This form is not employed for the past participle or for tenses derived from it.
The past participle of the transitive verb is passive in significa tion. There is therefore no need of a past participle for the passive voice. The Sindhi present participle of the passive voice follows a different rule of formation, and, in Lahnda, it omits the letter j. In other respects the passive is conjugated like a regular verb of the first conjugation. The passive is directly derived from the outer Prakrit passive in -ijja-.
The present subjunctive is the direct descendant of the old Prakrit present indicative.
The imperative is formed in the same way. The Sindhi future is formed by adding the nominative pronominal suffixes to the present participle. As there are no nominative suffixes of the third person, for that person the simple participle is employed. There are slight euphonic changes of the termination of the participle in the other persons.
The past tense is formed from the past participle with pro nominal suffixes added in both languages. As in the transitive verb the past participle is passive in signification, the subject must be put in the agent case, and the participle agrees in gender and number with the direct object, or, if the object is put in the dative case instead of the accusative, is treated impersonally in the masculine.
There are numerous compound tenses formed by conjugating the verb substantive with one or other of the participles. The past has slightly different forms with a feminine subject. Additional suffixes may be added to indicate the object, direct or remote.
Numerous verbs have irregular past participles, derived directly from the Prakrit past participles. The many compound verbs are formed much as in Hindustani, and must be learnt from the grammars.