Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c12.5

c12.5

Now if the Prâkṛits were not spoken dialects, what these scholars probably mean is that they were artificial adaptations, as Professor Wilson calls them. But we have seen that they grew up by such natural laws as guide the development of any language whatever. The development of the Prâkṛit dialects from Sanskrit is paralleled by the development of the Romance languages from Latin. If the Prâkṛit dialects are to be considered artificial, it is difficult to conceive upon what principles they could have been constructed and for what purpose. A conscious manufacture of a language would be conducted upon some general principles and would not admit of such isolated forms, not obeying any general rule, as we have noticed. The analogies would be perfect; but on the contrary we have seen that in the Pâli and the Prâkṛits a good many forms are made up according to a certain rule brought into use by analogy, as for instance making the passive by adding इज्ज or इअ, while there are others which are not thus constructed but have descended by simple phonetic corruption of Sanskrit forms, as दीसह, लम्भइ and others. In all parts of grammar there are such forms, and these have descended to the modern Vernaculars, as we have seen.