A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v2.c12.s2.23

v2.c12.s2.23

Hindi has also कौन, Pr. जो उण, which is, like तौन, produced by the incorporation of पुन:. From this source, also, springs O. जेउं, in Old-Oriya sometimes written जेड़ु, where the guttural nasal ङ is the first step in the weakening of ण to anunâsika. The relative portion of this compound word takes in O., as it does also when uncompounded in O. B. and G., the Magadhi nom. sing. form जे, which makes it identical in form with the nom. pl. The oblique forms in all the languages are from the genitive sing. Skr. यस्य, Pr. जस्स, with weakening of the vowel, and Skr. gen. pl. यानां (instead of the classical Skr. येषां, which has not been preserved), Pr. जाणां. Old-Hindi has its oblique singular जिहि, which is more modern in type than the Modern-H. जिस; this latter, however, was probably in use contemporaneously with जिहि, as we have in Chand forms जस and जास. The plural in Chand takes an emphatic addition, and is जिनै; but this seems to be restricted to the instrumental. Bengali takes this plural in the shape of जिन, and makes it into an honorific singular nominative.