Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c10.2

c10.2

I have already directed your attention to the accent on the penultimate syllable of words in the vernaculars of Northern India and the effect it has had in mutilating and transforming the Sanskrit and Prâkṛit words existing in their vocabularies. Through its influence, you will remember, the final vowel or the vowel of the last syllable is shortened in some cases and often entirely dropped and the word ends in a consonant or silent अ. When the consonant of the last syllable is dropped in consequence of the Prâkṛit law of the elision of uninitial consonants the final vowel and the vowel of the penultimate syllable are brought together and when they are in this condition it is possible for them to unite into one sound and thus the final vowel is dropped in some cases and combined with the preceding in others. The Sindhî, however, oftentimes resists the influence of this accent as I have already mentioned. Now on account of these processes the nominative singular termination ओ of masculine Prâkṛit nouns ending in अ is sometimes shortened to उ and in this form we have it in the Sindhî and in old Marâṭhî and Hindî literature. In the other dialects including the modern Marâṭhî and Hindî it is dropped except in rare instances such as वाटसरु M. and आयसु ‘command’ H. The Prâkṛit plural terminations आ and ए of this case are also dropped everywhere for the same reason and we have such forms as हाथ S., हाथ H., हात M. G. &c. for the nom. pl. and these are the sing. forms also except in the case of the Sindhî, which has ह्यु. In the Prâkṛit the plurals of the nominative and accusative cases of all nouns are alike and so are they alike in the vernaculars. The analogy came to be extended to the singulars also in the Apabhraṁśa and accordingly the singulars of the two cases are the same in the vernaculars. An independent accusative case made up by affixing a termination to a noun is given in ordinary grammars; but it has the sense of the dative, or rather of the Sanskrit genitive which expresses relation in general. Thus we say मी काम करितों M. ‘I do a work’, हूं काम करूं हूं G., आंघ कसु थो कर्या S., मै कम करदा P., मै काम करता हूं H., आमि or मुइ काम करि or करिते छि B., मु कर्म करु आछि O., in which instances काम etc. are really accusatives and we do not use कामास, कामने, कमखे, कमतु, कामको, कामके, and कर्मकु, which forms are generally referred to the accusative. The masculine nom. and acc.