A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v2.c12.s2.46

v2.c12.s2.46

Old-Hindi has कोऊ and oblique काहू, where the व or ब of कोबि has softened to the labial vowel, and the final short i has been dropped, as is usual in Hindi. The oblique forms किसि or किसी show the oblique of the interrogative with the ई, whose origin has been forgotten, so that it is regarded as a mere emphatic particle. Marathi कोएहा arises apparently from the fact that â is regarded as the general type of the oblique, and has been added without reflection. In ordinary current speech it is customary to add एक “one” to this pronoun, so that they say कोएहा एकाचा “of some one;” and the same practice prevails in the nom. pl. of H.; thus कइ एक or कैएक some “aliqui, aliquæ.” The Oriya काहारि is a curious instance of how these forms arise: काहार is the genitive of the interrogative, and by adding the emphatic इ or हि to it we get काहारहि or काहारि, which should be used as a genitive only, so that the oblique would be काहाइ; but the genitive form has been extended to all the cases, and they now say काहारि कु “to some one,” काहारि ठारु “from some one,” and so on.