i 



494 On the origin of the Hindvi Language. [No. 5 



its radical elements, and the formal elements of the Hindvi are 

 apparently very unlike those of the Sanskrita, but closely similar to 

 those of the Scythic group of languages, it is argued that it must be a 

 Turanian or Scythic, and not an Aryan dialect. To meet this, we must 

 enter into some detail regarding the changes which the grammatical 

 apparatus of the Sanskrita has undergone in some of the Sanskritic 

 dialects, such as the Gatha, the Pali and the Prakrita and then trace 

 its relation to the Hindvi. 



Beginning with the inflection of nouns, we find that the first step 

 in the transition of the Sanskrita into the Gatha, was the omission of 

 the mark of the nominative singular— ~s, which after a assumed the 

 form of the aspirate visarga. Where the Sanskrit said Bdmah, the 

 Gatha was contented with Rama. This was exactly what was to be 

 expected, for the most prominent feature of the changes which led to 

 the transition of the Vedic Sanskrita into the language of the Kama- 

 yana and the Mahabharata was the softening down of harsh and 

 difficult combinations of several consonants, and of elision of aspi- 

 rates. The aspirate of the nominative singular was, besides, not com- 

 mon to all nouns, but only to themes ending in a. Words ending in 

 consonants, in the vowel ri and in long % or u, received no aspirate, and 

 their analogy prompted the elision of it also after a. This elision in 

 the Gatha was, however, occasional and not universal. It retained the 

 aspirate as often as it dropped it, and sometimes supplied its place by 

 the letter u, and so all the three forms of Bdmah, Rama and Rdmu* 

 are to be met with in the ballads of the Gatha. 



The s of the Sanskrit, which becomes a visarga after a, changes into 

 o if an a follow it. But in the Zend, the latter condition is not neces- 

 sary, hence o is the usual termination in the nominative singular, 

 and it is its contraction that we meet with in the Gatha in the form of u. 

 The Pali of As'oka's edicts omits the s, but never takes the o or u ; but 

 in the Pali of Katyayana's grammar and as we find it in the Cingalese 

 chronicles, the o is preferred to simple elision, so is it in the" Prakrita. 

 Of the modern vernaculars the Braja Bhasha or the Hindvi of Mathura 

 alone occasionally takes the u, but the others all drop all case-mark 

 for the nominative. Thus the Sanskrit BdlaJcah becomes in Gatha 

 Bdlala or Balaku* in Pali Bdlako, in Prakrita Bdlaha, and in 



* I have not noticed these words declined in the different forms, but the forms 

 occur in connexion with different words. 





