A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c6.96

v1.c6.96

In the case of the gutturals there appear to be no organic changes in the Prakrits or modern languages, with the exception of the compound च (क + ष). In Sanskrit a connexion appears to exist between the letters of this organ and the palatals. When a verb beginning with a guttural is reduplicated, the corresponding palatal is used; as कुट् “to sever,” = चुकुट्; गम् “to go,” = जगम्. It is probably this practice, taken in connexion with the similar custom in nouns of changing च when terminating a base into क before certain case-endings, as वाक्, acc. वाचं, that has led to the commonly received idea that the genitive postposition in Marathi, चा, is derived from or connected with the corresponding Hindi का. If this be so, we should expect to find that क was regularly replaced by च in Marathi. After considerable search, however, I am unable to find any such instance. If, then, the above supposition be correct, it must be an isolated case.