Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c6.20

c6.20

Another phenomenon constantly observable in the history of the growth of a language is the use of false analogies. Thus in Sanskrit the root श्रु to hear takes the augment श् in the Present and three other tenses or moods, and the Sanskrit of he hears is शृणोति. Now in the course of time people forgot that this termination was used in these tenses alone, and extended it to the Future, the past participle, and other derivatives, so that in the Pâli and the Prâkrits the root itself became सुण=शृण instead of श्रु. This root has descended to most of the modern dialects in this same form. In the same way क्री to buy became किण, ज्ञा to know, जाण, बुध् to know, बुज्झ and so on. All these exist in the vernaculars so augmented. In the same way, though कृ is conjugated in Sanskrit by adding उ to the base according to the rule of the eighth conjugation, and forms करोति, कुर्वन्ति &c., in Prâkrit it is conjugated according to the rule of the first or the tenth which are generalised, and has करइ or करेइ. This arises from the same sort of mistake that children commit, when, for instance, from the analogy of धरलेँ from धर, पडलेँ from पड &c., they use करलेँ from कर, though the correct Marâthî form is केलेँ and you may remember such expressions as "I knowed" and "you was" that Dickens puts into the mouth of his lower characters. The Pâli and the Prâkrits are full of such formations. This law may be called the law of false analogies or of the generalisation of grammatical forms, or formal generalisation, and the effect of it is to do away with anomalies and introduce simplicity in a language. It springs from the same causes as phonetic decay, viz. the economization of effort, and its operation is restricted also by the same causes as those which arrest the progress of phonetic corruption.