ISO Hoernle — Essays on the Gaurian Languages. [No. 2, 
essays, all Gaupan words really ending in consonants will have the Viba'ma 
(furru) appended to them while those which end only virtually in conso- 
nants (but really in short vowels) will be written without it ; e. g., q\T*T ear 
is pronounced kan not kiina, and treated exactly like wise (pro- 
nounced budhiman, not budhimana). This explains also how it happened 
that some words which really end in ^ or 'a come to be written as if ending 
in vj. The truth is, that they are not really written with a final % but 
their final X or not being pronounced, was also not written.* The tran- 
scription of the word assimilated itself to the pronunciation ; e.g., 'YTJT fire 
seems at first sight by the analogy of ^TT*T, &c., to bo really aga though 
pronounced only ag ; hut this is only in appearance, in truth stands for 
^Tf*I (Prakrit Sanskrit vjfjp), but as final Y was not pronounced, it 
was also suppressed in writing. So again the modern High Hindi hav- 
ing done stands for the older Low Hindi qifY (Prakrit q\fY3(, Sanskrit 
STSfr), which lias dropped its final ?, hi accommodation to the pronunciation. 
In poetry, indeed, ^Rl, qrv and other nouns of the same nature are commonly 
treated as if termmating in 'Sj (i. e., aga, kara, not as ag, lcar,) but this is 
merely because according to the native grammatical system, the vowel “?( 
is supposed to he inherent in every consonant. 
The second law is this, that a final diphthong or long vowel of the Pra- 
krit is reduced by the Gaurian to its inherent simple vowel. The inherent 
simple vowel of is of Y and x it is X, of ill and ^ it is In Prakrit 
all masculine bases in ^ terminate in the nominative singular in % or q (cf. 
Pr. Prak. V. 1, XI, 10) ; all masculine and feminine bases in X and ^ 
terminate in the nominative singular in Y and ^ (cf. Pr. Prak. V, 18) ; 
all masculine and feminine bases in q|T, Y and ^ terminate in the 
nominative singular in ^Ti, Y and <3? respectively. I have shown above that 
the Gaurian adopts its nouns from the Prakrit in the form of the nomina- 
tive singular of the Prakrit. Now in adopting them in this manner, the 
Gaurian reduces their (Prakrit) terminations ^JT, % X, regularly to 
their inherent simple vowels "W, X and 'S.f E. //., Sanskrit ^Tfli = Prakrit 
* Traces of this phenomenon occur already in Prakrit ; comp. Pr. Prak. 2JI, 
10., according to which sutra instead of uij qftjrj (for Skr. qq q-qq:) may be said 
and written <rftj qf^fg » s well as vq qf%qr. 
t Traces of this law arc not unfrequent already in Prakrit. For the reduction 
of % to ,3 comp, Pr. Prak. XX, ii. (e. g., VIY^ for smiling), Y, 19— 20, 
(e. S'.,niqn r S for nrqtT'qi garlands). For the reduction of u to ^ comp. Pr. Prak. Y, 
22. (e. 3-,qiYY for by a river), XI, 10, ii. ( e . S-, qf^rfrj for qf%q) a man), VI, 6. (e.g., 
^iY ^ or °f whom). The reduction of a final ^gp x, "3! occurs only, when they 
are the final of the first part of a compound ; see Pr. Prak. IY. i. (e. g., f° r 
the bank of the Jumna; VIT.) fYI f° r VYVI^i the river-stream ; 
