Template:pi-decl-noun/documentation

Purpose
This template, which works for all the standard Pali scripts, generates a declension table for a noun. It may also be used for a pronoun or the gender of an adjective. The template itself is a front-end for Module:pi-decl/noun.

The template will also work for 'non-standard' abugidic scripts whose implicit vowel is 'a' if: In these cases, the parameters sc and ending are required.
 * Module:pi-Latn-translit supports transliteration to that script;
 * The declension data module Module:pi-decl/noun/ exists; it need only return an empty table; and
 * There are no idiosyncratic interactions between stem and affix.

Regular Declensions
14 'regular' vocalic* patterns of declension and 9 consonantal patterns of declension are recognised:

If different from the stem, the commonest nominative singular is given in parentheses after it. The masculine -ī and -in declensions, and as another pair the neuter -i and -in declensions, are indistinguishable. The use of the masculine -ī declension and the neuter -in declension are deprecated; the masculine -in and neuter -i declensions should be used instead.

Special Handling for Sinhala Script
Two variants of endings in 'nt' are recognised for the Sinhala script - combinations with touching letters (thematic masculine nominative singular ending න‍්තො), the traditional form, and combinations with a bare al-lakuna (thematic nominative singular ending න්තො) as commonly used in writing the Sinhalese language. The simple codes such as 'ant' are used for bare al-lakuna: special codes with 'T' suffixed, such as 'antT', are used for touching letters.

This feature should be hidden from the user interface - that will be future enhancement. Note that this feature need only be used for present participles whose stem ends in මන‍්ත් or වන‍්ත්; automatic stem recognition handles the other cases.

Irregular Declension
Irregular declension is treated as a deviation from regular declension. Parameters are provided to suppress cases and override or supplement case forms.

Usage
The simplest, and commonest, invocation is of the form pi-decl-noun for the declension of the head word. To display the declension of the feminine of within that page, one can simply write pāpī. To display the masculine of the present participle of, one writes kilamant:

Simply writing kilamant would generate an incorrect nominative singular masculine: