158 
Hoe rule — Essays on the Gaurian Languages. 
[No. 2, 
But (as in the Hindi class Gaurian languages) that form of the noun 
(i, e. the nora. sing, of the Prakrit) undergoes in its passage from the 
Prakrit to the Gaufian various phonetic modifications in its termination. 
The following are typical examples TTTiT. nom. sing. Prakrit of rre (= 
Sanskrit ^tr?: ), changes in the Gaurian its final diphthong to the more 
agreeable long vowel ^T, thus ri"*n which, then, remains the unchangeable 
inflexional base of all cases. Compare in Hindi uilfr for Prakrit iirfr or 
qpg'ijp etc. Again the Marathi frR stands for the Prakrit nom. sing, 
(for Sanskrit 5 the medial g is elided, leaving frpit which form 
occurs in Marathi as an alternative of ; finally changes to fan 
which being now a modification altogether peculiar to the Gaurian (Marathi) 
remains an unchangeable inflexional base. The word fanT; illustrates also 
another case. It is a feminine noun, which in the sense of tripod does not 
occur in Sanskrit, but in Bangdll it is The affix Ti is the peculiar 
Gaurian formative of the feminine, and feminine nouns thus formed are 
therefore subject to the Gaurian law (of not admitting an oblique form ) ; 
e. g., rrfat, carriage, gen. Jifat dat. Jifat ^TT ; fan^, gen. faq?; ^T, dat. 
^tt, etc. As the feminine termination x, so also the fern, and masc. 
termination is a peculiar Gaurian modification and hence unchangeable 
in inflexion ; as in chalk for Prakrit (or »afanrr) = Sanskrit 
jsifEc(fT (or perhaps rather for a Prakrit wnTT ; ? Jfa chalk for Sanskrit hfanfr ; 
irs? bamboo for Sanskrit nffinrr and Prakrit nfal, and so foi’th. 
So far then (as regards the proper Gaurian element) we have seen, the 
Marathi is at one with the Hindi-class Gaurian languages. But they differ in 
the treatment of their Sanskritic element. In the Hindi-class Gaurian lan- 
guages we have seen the rule is, to treat the Sanskritic element according to 
the law of the proper Gaurian of keeping the inflexional base unchanged 
in all cases. On the contrary in Marathi the rule is, to distribute all Sans- 
kritic and foreign words among the various declensions according to their 
final vowels. And thus it happens that while some of them are treated 
according to the proper Gaurian law of not admitting an oblique form ; 
others come under the law of the Prakritic elements and admit an oblique 
form ; e. g., all Marathi nouns in niT (masc. and fern.) are Prakritic ; except 
nouns expressing titles or names, which are Gaurian proper. Their analogy 
is exactly followed by Sanskritic and, wo may add, foreign words. For 
while such Sanskritic nouns as aiJTT, ^TTnfT, THT, etc. (all names), and ?WT, 
*e!T^T (Arabic titles), by the analogy of 3’T'^T, 3TT3fT, etc., remain unchang- 
ed, thus gen. JtJTf ^r, etc., ■gwT ^7, etc. ; on the other hand, all other Sanskritic 
nouns, as fq*TT, >3T<TT, 'HT7TT, nfMT, etc. (all masculine), by the analogy 
of the Prakritic words ^pi^TT, etc., form an oblique form , thus gen. 
fTrSfT ^T, nnnUT ^T, just like ^T, ; or the Sanskritic nouns 
WTWT, fanjT, WrTT. etc. (all feminine), by the analogy of the Prakritic 
