A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v2.c12.80

v2.c12.80

The Hindi in this, as in so many other instances, vindicates its right to be considered the leading language of the group, by the fidelity with which it adheres to rule. The other languages are less faithful to the long vowel representing the oxytone, than they are to the short vowel derived from the barytone stems, Marathi especially diverges in this respect, but the divergence is probably due, as will be seen hereafter, to its practice in modifying the final vowel of the stem in the oblique cases.