A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c2: Preface
A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c2
- Language
- English
Contents
- v1.c2.s1 Note — 15 parts
Preface
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It is with much hesitation, and with a deep sense of its many imperfections, that I now lay this volume before the public. Begun in 1866, it has for more than five years occupied my leisure hours; and if it should be remarked, as in justice it might, that the result is somewhat meagre for so long a period of preparation, I would reply that the duties of a magistrate and collector in Bengal are not only onerous, but so multifarious, and often so urgent, that he is never safe from interruption at any hour of the day or night. On an average, two hours a day has been the utmost time that I could devote to my amusements or private pursuits of any kind. Constant journeys, repeated attacks of sickness, and the "mollis inertia" inseparable from the climate during at least six months of the year, must also be taken into consideration. It may be asked, why under these circumstances I undertook the task at all? To this I answer, that to a hardworked brain change of labour is often a greater relaxation than absolute idleness, and that having always been a student of languages from my childhood, I had adopted this form of amusement in preference to any other, and had collected and grouped together many examples of the most salient peculiarities in the languages which I heard spoken round me long before any idea of writing a book entered my head.
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It was, I think, in 1865 that I first saw Dr. Caldwell's Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, and it immediately occurred to me that a similar book was much wanted for the Aryan group. It was evident that no scholar in Europe could do the work, because the written productions in the modern vernaculars and the few dictionaries and grammars procurable are not only frequently quite wrong and utterly misleading, but are also very defective, so that no one could merely from books get a firm and certain grasp of all these languages. It is necessary to be able to speak all or most of them, and to live among the people and hear them talking daily. When, therefore, I turned to scholars in India, it did not appear that any of them contemplated undertaking such a task. Then I thought that it would be well for me to try; if I could not make a perfect book, I could at any rate gather together and set forth in order the main rules, and could give copious examples and illustrations, so that, while waiting for some Bopp or Grimm to arise, students might have a handbook of some sort to guide them, and might no longer be misled by the astoundingly false etymologies which occur in the ordinary grammars and dictionaries. I have, therefore, not called this book by any mock-modest title, such as "an introduction," or "contributions to," or "notes on," or anything of the kind, because I have done my best to cover the whole ground of the subject; and whether I have done well or ill, the book was meant to be a Comparative Grammar, and I have called it so accordingly.
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A residence of upwards of twelve years in India, during which I have held official posts in the Panjab, Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa, and have made long visits to various parts of Hindustan Proper (the North-western Provinces), has rendered me familiar with Panjabi, Hindi, Bengali, and Oriya, all of which, at different times, I have had to speak, read, and write. The western languages, Marathi, Sindhi, and Gujarati, I only know from books and from such information as I have obtained from kind correspondents in Bombay, among whom my thanks are specially due to Mr. Flynn, translator to the High Court, whose notes have been of great value to me, and whose knowledge of the languages of his Presidency is both accurate and profound.
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A great difficulty has been the want of good books of reference. Living in this remote wilderness, I had only such books as my own scanty library contains; my best book has been the peasant in the fields, from whose lips I have often learnt more than I could find in dictionaries or grammars.
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Such as it is, then, volume the first is now about to make its voyage home to be printed,
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“Parve, nec invideo, sine me liber ibis in urbem.”
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I dismiss it with the hope that it may prove useful to those for whom it is intended.
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My learned friend, Dr. R. Rost, Librarian of the India Office, has kindly undertaken to give this volume the benefit of his superintendence while passing through the press, thus conferring an inestimable favour, not only on the author, but on the public, by preventing the book from being disfigured by errors of printing; for all other errors I must remain responsible.
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This volume contains only the Phonetics of the group. A second volume, on the noun and pronoun, is already on the stocks, but I cannot say when it will be ready for the press. I hope, if life and health are spared, to complete the work by a third volume, containing the verb and particles; but our official work seems to get heavier, and leisure to be more unattainable, day by day. My progress is therefore of necessity slow and uncertain, and many years must elapse before my task is finished.
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JOHN BEAMES.
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BALASORE, ORISSA, September, 1871.
Note
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A LIST of the works which I have consulted is here inserted. Although, as I have said before, I have had comparatively little help from books, yet it is due to those living authors from whom I have derived any assistance to acknowledge the same.
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Bopp: *Comparative Grammar.* I used the French edition by Bréal. Paris, 1866. Grimm: *Deutsche Grammatik.* Grimm: *Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache.* Trumpp: *Das Sindhi im Vergleich zum Prákrit.* Journal of German Oriental Society, vol. xv., p. 690. Trumpp: *Die Stammbildung des Sindhi.* *Ibid*, vol. xvi., p. 177. Two most valuable essays. I have taken some examples from them, but most of those which are identical with Dr. Trumpp's I had already collected for myself before I became acquainted with his works. Weber: *Ueber ein Fragment der Bhágavatí.* Transactions of Royal Academy of Sciences, Berlin, vol. i., 1865; vol. ii., 1866. Weber: *Saptaçatakam.* Leipzig, 1870. My thanks are due to the learned author for the immense benefit I have derived from the study of these two important treatises. Cowell: *The Prákrita Prakáśa of Vararuchi.* This admirable edition of the leading work on Prakrit has been the basis of the present volume.
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Bopp's *Glossarium Comparativum*, Westergaard's *Radices Sanskritica*, Benfey's *Sanskrit Dictionary* (I could not get Böhtlingk and Roth's), Monier Williams's *English and Sanskrit Dictionary*, Muir's *Sanskrit Texts*, vol. ii., and numerous articles scattered through the pages of the Journals of the various Asiatic Societies, have also been constantly referred to.
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It is unnecessary to specify the dictionaries and grammars of the modern vernaculars. They are those in ordinary use, and for the most part very bad and defective, except Molesworth's splendid work and Shamacharan Sirkar's very complete and useful Bengali grammar.
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BOOK I., ON SOUNDS.
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CHAPTER I.—INTRODUCTION.
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PAGE § 1. Sanskrit the parent of the seven languages . . 1 § 2. First exception, elements Aryan, but not Sanskritic—the Prakrits . . . . . . 3 § 3. Second exception, elements neither Sanskritic nor Aryan 9 § 4. Elementary division of the seven languages,—Tatsama, Tadbhava, Deśaja . . . . . 11 § 5. Early and late Tadbhavas . . . . 13 § 6. The accent . . . . . . 17 § 7. Absence of data during nine centuries . . . 21 § 8. Proportion of words of the three classes in each language 28 § 9. Digression on the Hindi . . . . . 31 § 10. Proportion of words resumed . . . . 34 § 11. Quantity of Arabic and Persian words in each language . 39 §§ 12-14. Inflectional systems of the seven languages,—question of non-Aryan influence . . . . 41 § 15. Stages of development in the present day . . 48 § 16. The character . . . . . 54 § 17. Panjâbi . . . . . . 56 § 18. Bangâli . . . . . . 62 § 19. Oriyâ . . . . . . 62
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§ 20. Pronunciation, अ . . . . . . . 66 § 21. The other vowels . . . . . . . 69 § 22. Consonants . . . . . . . . 70 § 23. Semivowels . . . . . . . . 73 § 24. Sibilants . . . . . . . . 75 § 25. Nasals . . . . . . . . 78 § 26. Compound consonants,—peculiarities of Bangâlî . . 79 § 27. Peculiarities of Sindhi . . . . . . 80 § 28. Literature . . . . . . . . 82 § 29. Dialects . . . . . . . . 96 § 30. General remarks on chronological sequence of the various languages, and their probable future fate . . . . 108 Table of Indian alphabets . . . . . . 122
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§ 31. (1) Characteristics of Sanskrit vowel system . . . 124
(2) Vocalism of races bordering on India . . . 127 § 32. Change of अ to इ . . . . . . . 129 § 33. Change of अ to उ . . . . . . . 132 § 34. Retrospective influence of इ and उ . . . . 134 § 35. Change of अ to ए . . . . . . . 137 § 36. अ into ओ . . . . . . . . 143 § 37. इ into अ . . . . . . . . 145 § 38. इ into उ . . . . . . . . 146 § 39. उ into अ and इ . . . . . . . 146 § 40. Changes of quantity—shortening . . . . 147 § 41. Ditto—lengthening . . . . . . 152 § 42. Guṇa and Vṛiddhi . . . . . . 156 § 43. ऋ and its changes . . . . . . 159 § 44. Other vowel changes . . . . . . 167 § 45. Insertion or diæresis . . . . . . 170 § 46. Elision . . . . . . . . 175 § 47. Vowels in hiatus . . . . . . 184
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CHAPTER II.—ON VOWEL CHANGES.
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CHAPTER III.—CHANGES OF SINGLE CONSONANTS.
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§ 48. General remarks—positional and organic changes . . 189 § 49. Positional changes—initial consonants . . 190 § 50. Ditto—medial consonants . . 194 § 51. (1) Retention . . 195 § 52. (2) Softening of tenues to mediæ . . 198 § 53. (3) Elision . . 200 § 54. Laws of the three processes . . 204 § 55. Final consonants . . 207 § 56. Organic changes—gutturals . . 209 § 57. Relation of palatals to linguals . . 210 § 58. Marathi substitution of sibilants for palatals . . 218 § 59. Connexion between cerebrals and dentals . . 219 § 60. Further transition of cerebrals into *l* and *ḷ* . . 238 § 61. Modifications and changes of semivowels; (1) य . . 247 § 62. *Id.*, (2) य . . 248 § 63. *Id.*, (3) र . . 250 § 64. *Id.*, (4) व . . 251 § 65. The nasals . . 253 § 66. The sibilants . . 257 § 67. ह . . 262 §§ 68, 69. The aspirates . . 263 § 70. Visarga and anuswâra . . 274 § 71. Inversion of words . . 275
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§ 72. Ancient and modern articulation . . 277 § 73. The nexus—its three classes . . 281 § 74. The strong nexus . . 283 § 75. Saptan and its derivatives . . 287 § 76. *Ud* in composition . . 293 § 77. The mixed nexus . . 294 § 78. Nasals in a mixed nexus . . 295
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CHAPTER IV.—CHANGES OF COMPOUND CONSONANTS.
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§ 79. Treatment of म . . . . . . . 302 § 80. The sibilants in a mixed nexus . . . . 304 § 81. Treatment of च . . . . . . . 309 § 82. Sibilants in combination with dental and cerebral strong letters . . . . . . . 313 § 83. Semivowels in a mixed nexus—र and ल . . 318 § 84. Id.,—य and व . . . . . . . 324 § 85. य, र, and व in combination with dentals . . 325 § 86. The weak nexus . . . . . . . 339 § 87. Nasal with nasal . . . . . . . 340 § 88. Nasal with semivowel . . . . . . 341 § 89. Nasal with sibilant . . . . . . . 346 § 90. Semivowel with semivowel . . . . . 348 § 91. Semivowel with sibilant . . . . . . 353 § 92. ह in combination with other weak letters . . 358 § 93. Relative strength of the weak letters . . . 359
Linked texts (3)
- Gāhāsattasaī — Hāla, Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit
- Prākṛtaprakāśa — Vararuci, Sanskrit
- Viyāhapannatti — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit