n-Stem Declension: Whose Key Survives Moderation
A Class-10 teacher in Pune set an 18-cell declension table (rājan- masculine, and tad- masculine/neuter) worth 18 marks for 68 students. Script analysis shows four error clusters: 21 students wrote rājena for the instrumental singular and rājāya for the dative singular; 9 wrote he rāja as the vocative; 14 wrote tayā for the masculine instrumental of tad; and 5 wrote rājñi for the locative singular where the prescribed book prints rājani. The moderator checks keys against two prescribed books, one of which lists rājñi first and the other rājani. The teacher must publish a key with acceptable alternatives marked, plus a one-line diagnosis for each error cluster, before 68 scripts are returned. There is a single 15-minute slot for re-teaching, so the diagnosis must name the pattern, not list forms.
1. Build the key for the six cells instrumental sg., dative sg., nominative pl., instrumental pl., genitive pl., locative sg. of rājan-, and explain the single pattern behind them.
Read the worked answer
Key: rājñā, rājñe, rājānaḥ, rājabhiḥ, rājñām, rājani (rājñi accepted with a note).
The pattern to teach, in one line: rājan- is not an a-stem; the stem-final -n survives as -ñ before a vowel-initial ending (with lengthening of the stem vowel), and is dropped before a consonant-initial ending with lengthening of the stem vowel.
- rājan + ā → rājñā; rājan + e → rājñe; rājan + ām → rājñām - vowel-initial endings, so -n → -ñ.
- rājan + as → rājānaḥ - here the -n is lost and the stem vowel lengthens.
- rājan + bhiḥ → rājabhiḥ - consonant-initial ending, plain stem rāja- plus ending.
- Locative singular rājani is formed on the weak stem with -i; rājñi is the variant printed by the other prescribed book, so key it as rājani (rājñi also acceptable) and say so in the note to the moderator.
Do not present these as six separate forms: the class will memorise six and miss the seventh cell in the next test.
2. Diagnose the clusters rājena/rājāya, he rāja, and tayā, and write the one-line feedback for each that fits a 15-minute re-teach.
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All three clusters are the same error in different clothes: the student has substituted a more familiar paradigm.
- rājena / rājāya - a-stem analogy (rāmeṇa, rāmāya). Feedback line: rājan- is an -an stem, so the -n reappears as -ñ before the ending: rājñā, rājñe. Marking: 0 for the cell, but credit the ending if the ending itself is right, since the ending is a separate skill.
- he rāja - the student has used the compound form rāja- (as in rājaputraḥ, rājadhānī) as a vocative. Feedback line: the vocative keeps the stem -n: he rājan; rāja- appears only inside compounds. Marking: 0, with the note that this is a stem choice error, not a spelling slip.
- tayā - the student has used the feminine instrumental of tad. Feedback line: tayā belongs to sā (feminine); the masculine/neuter instrumental is tena. Marking: 0.
All three diagnoses name the analogy, which is what allows one 15-minute slot to fix 44 of the 68 students at once.
3. Five students wrote rājñi where the class book prints rājani. Decide what the key must say and how the marks should be affected.
Read the worked answer
Accept rājñi, award the mark, and print the alternative in the key.
The teacher is not free to decide this on taste: the moderator checks against two prescribed books and one of them lists rājñi first. Marking a form wrong because a different book prints the other variant is exactly the kind of item that fails moderation and produces a legitimate appeal.
What the key should say: Locative singular: rājani (standard); rājñi accepted (variant printed in the second prescribed text). What the feedback to the class should say: both are current; use the form your examination board's book prints, and recognise the other when you meet it in a text.
The judgement worth recording is this - a declension item tests whether the student controls the -an stem, and both rājani and rājñi demonstrate that control. Refusing one of them tests which book the student owns, which the item was not designed to measure.