A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v3.c18.47

v3.c18.47

Under these altered lights I must withdraw the opinion formerly held by me as to the origin of the infinitive in *ná*. That in *ana* is now obsolete, except in Kanauji, and the *ná* form is declined as a noun in *â*, making its oblique in *e*, as *karne kâ* "of doing," *karne meṇ* "in doing." In M. the infinitive is also declined as a noun of the sixth declension (Vol. II. p. 192), thus gen. *karaṇyâ châ* "of doing," dat. *karaṇyâ lâ* "to doing." In Sindhi, however, the infinitive vindicates its claim to be considered as a descendant of the verbal noun in *anam* by exhibiting the declension of masculines (*i.e.* neuters) in *u*; the oblique ends consequently in *a*, as *ginhaṇa jo* "of buying," *ginhaṇa meṇ* "in buying," etc. This would not be the case were the S. infinitive derived from the participle in *anīya*.