A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c4.55

v1.c4.55

Another instance is the causal verb in Sanskrit, which has the accent on the first syllable of the characteristic, as in चोरयति choráyati. The Hindi in all its pure causals is followed by Bengali, Oṛiya, Panjabi, and Gujarati in retaining a long á in the same position, as churáná, bajáná, miláná, karáná. This long á is not produced by rejecting the y of aya, and contracting the two vowels into one, as is proved by the fact that in old Hindi the last a of the two has gone out, leaving the y changed into u, as karáuná, dikháuná, bujháuná, forms still in use in many rustic parts of India. Moreover, though the first syllable of the verb in Sanskrit takes guṇa, yet we find in the moderns that its lack of accent subjects it to be shortened, as in the examples above given. In Marathi the causal verb is formed by the insertion of the syllables अव, or इव, or आव, as mârnen, “to kill,” mâravinen, “to cause to kill”; khânen, “to eat,” khâvavinen, “to cause to eat”; soḍnen, “to loose,” soḍavinen, “to cause to loose.” In the first of these forms the y of áya is changed to v, just as in Hindi it becomes u, and though both the short vowels remain, yet the influence of the accent operates in retaining the accented vowel as *a*, while the unaccented vowel is weakened to *i*. In *vari* we have the same form, but with a *v* prefixed, and the form *iva* is a mere modern corruption, which is rejected in many cases by good authors.