Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c11.64

c11.64

The Apabhrams’a dat. postposition केहिं survives in the S. खे the aspiration is thrown on के so to make it खे and the vowel is dropped. We have already seen several instances of this process but I will add one or two more to the point. The Pr. कहिं ‘where’ is in the Goan. and Mâl. खंय, तहिं ‘there’ थंय, अहिं ‘here’ हंय. Often the old ह is dropped in the moderns and thus we have from केहिं the B. के. The old H. termination कहं is the Pr. कहिं ‘where,’ so that originally the sense of राम कहं was ‘Râma’s somewhere.’ ‘Send to Râma’s somewhere’ and ‘give it to Râma’s somewhere’ came afterwards to mean ‘send it to Râma’ and ‘give it to Râma.’ The इ of the loc. कहिं is here dropped as is mostly the case in the pronominal locatives which in the modern languages as well as the Prâkrit have become adverbs of place; such are जहिं relative ‘where’, तहिं ‘there’, अहिं ‘here’, and कहिं ‘where’ interrogative which have become जहां, तहां, यहां and कहां and in Tulsidas जहं तहं and कहं. Sometimes the इ is preserved in the current speech as in कहां or कहीं H., अही, यहां G. The other dat. termination कहुं, the origin of कूँ or कों, is either the ablative or genitive form of किम् since हुं was in Apbhr. the termination of both these cases. The O. कुं is another form of this कहुं. The M. तें is from the Apbhr. तहिं as के from केहिं. The B. has this affix also used principally in the case of inanimate creatures.