62 A. F. Rudolf Hoernle— Essays on the Gaurian Languages . [No. 1, 
consonant which precedes it, is virtually the final of the word; now most 
probably the consonant of the dative first changed to ^ (a change, which 
is supported by the Magadhi Prakrit genitive in "Wlir, see note on page 60 
and Prak. Prak. XI. 12,), and then the ^ becoming the virtual final sound 
of the word was dropped ; thus become first (or virtually 
and finally Any one by pronouncing both and 
may see how easily one passes into the other. It follows thus, that the dative 
form in ^JT, being merely a modification of the fuller dative form in 
is also really the organic genitive of the Prakrit. 
Now this genitive form in which has been preserved in the dative 
of the old Marathi, has been lost in modern Marathi, hut it is preserved in 
the latter as well as in the former as the inflexional base of all cases formed 
by post-go sit ions, e. g. ^r, “ God,” has old and modern dative ^T^T, old dative 
'iyrr, (old and modern) instr. if, dative ^TT, abl. ??«T, genitive 
■^T xfT- So far then it is proved, that the oblique form in of the 
inflexional base of Marathi nouns in is identical with the organic genitive 
of the Prakrit. But further it is manifest that as the nature of the 
Marathi dative form in and (e. g., affair, is identical with 
that of the dative form in (e. g., ^1M), so the nature of the oblique 
forms in ^ and xjt (of the inflexional base of Marathi nouns in X and as 
gen. of qrf^r, 3]^ gen. of 3T^) must be identical with that of the 
oblique form in of the inflexional base of nouns in ; and in the same 
manner as the form m arose from that in so the form in X and 
must have arisen from those in ^ and "^r. It follows, therefore, that 
the oblique forms in ^ and ^ of the inflexional base of Marathi nouns in 
X and are identical with the organic genitive of the Prakrit ; that is, 
that, e. g., the oblique form offfid of the noun ^if^is identical with the Prak. 
genitive and with etc. 
If, as has been now shown, the oblique form of the inflexional base 
of all nouns in % Xi an d ^ (d- G --> by far the greatest part of the whole 
number of nouns) is identical with the Prakrit genitives, this fact raises the 
presumption that the oblique form of all remaining inflexional bases will be 
of the same nature. We will now take the different kinds of oblique forms 
of inflexional bases in Maratln and afterwards in the other Gaurian 
• • 
languages one by one and show that that is really the case. 
a. The inflexional base of all Marathi nouns (masc. fern, and neut.) 
in X and and of all Mar. nouns (masc. and neut.) in ^ has an oblique 
form , respectively, in X an d ^ and ^T. These, as has been already proved, 
are Prakrit genitives. 
b. The inflexional base of feminine nouns in % has an oblique form 
either in ^ or in Those nouns which have an oblique form in X, are, as 
I have shown in Essay III., really feminine nouns in x • They belong, 
