156 Hoernle — Essays on the Gaurian Languages. [No. 2, 
lias come into it from the Sanskrit directly and belongs to its Sanshri- 
tie element, or, as I have explained in the introductory essay, is the 
high Hindi substitute for the low Hindi wvry, which is considered to be 
vulgar. But what it is important to observe is this, that and 
are identical as regards their termination. This is a curious result of the 
action of phonetic laws, by which the Proper Gaurian elements, after a 
run of centuries through constantly changing forms, return to their original 
Sam&ritic form. In the case of and the appearance of the whole 
word is so alike, that perhaps it may have sometimes escaped observation 
that there is at all a double form of the word of so widely different origin. 
But the identity may even go further than this, so that in the case of not 
a few words it may be now impossible to determine, whether they are 
contributions of the Prakrit or the Sanskrit. The cause of the identity of 
termination on the part of the Sanskritic elements of the Gaurian is the 
inability of the latter to tolerate a visarga,* and its want of a neuter 
gender. All Sanskrit nouns when incorporated into the Gaurian, pass 
into it in the form of the nominative singular according to the Gaurian 
principle. Thus father is fq<TT, brother is '‘ST'fn, mother is WrTT ; they are 
the nominatives singular of the Sanskrit bases fqs, HiS. wa. The proper 
Gaurian forms of these words are HH3 or Hr®, wg which are still 
in use in the Panjabi, Marathi and poetical Hindi. Now the nominative 
singular masculine of Sanskrit bases in % 7, and ^3 ends in a visarga. 
Hence the Gaurian which is unable to tolerate a final visarga, elides it, and 
therefore practically adopts Sanskrit masculine norms in raj. x. <3 in their 
crude base. Sanskrit neuter bases in ?; and ^3 have no inflexional termination 
in the nominative singular, and their adoption by the Gaurian makes, 
therefore, no difference in their case ; but Sanskrit neuter nouns in v; end 
in the nominative singular in fl . The Gaurian languages which do not 
possess a neuter gender, f when adopting such Sanskrit neuter nouns, simply 
* E. g. Sanskrit becomes in Hindi Sanskrit becomes in 
Hindi ^•fiqryyt. Sometimes instead of the usual suppression of the visarga, it is 
turned into ^ but only in Low Hindi. 
+ This is Btrictly true only as regards Sanskritic nenter nouns. But as regards 
Prdkritic neuter nouns most Gaurian languages possess them (another evidence by the 
way that these Prdkritic nouns are the oldest element of the Gaurian) ; e. g., the Marathi, 
the Gujarati, the old and poetical Hindi (in Chand Bardai) aud present low Hindi 
Braj and Alwari dialects. The modern High Hindi, on the other hand, has lost tho 
neuter gender throughout. Thus the Sanskrit neuter, part. fut. pass, qfyrij fjvj, 
which has passed through the intermediate stage of the Prakrit into the Gaurian 
languages is in Marathi Braj sjfrvt, Alwari qsTSf (all neuter) ; while in 
the High Hindi it is which latter, by dropping the anuswara of tho Braj, 
has beoomo a masculine noun. 
