1873.] A. E. Rudolf Hoernle —Essays on the Gaurian Languages. 63 
therefore, to the former class, and their oblique form in ^ is a Ercikrit 
genitive. Those nouns which have an oblique form in ^ are, as has 
also been shown in Essay III, really Prakrit feminine nouns in "3fT. The 
Prakrit genitive of these nouns ends in which in Gaurian might 
become (the final being reduced to ^ as in the Horn. and Acc. cases), 
and this, finally, is contracted by regular Sandhi (cf. Prak. Prak. IV. 1.) into 
^ ; e. g., 5Tt*F tongue has gen. apil ; in Prakrit it is 3Ti$?T (or = Skr. 
f^TWT, cf. Prak. Prak. I. 17, III. 54); Gen. in Gaurian 
contracted opY (as in Bangali = srriG, Gen. of tiger). 
c. All Marathi nouns ending in consonants (rnasc. fern, or neut.) are 
treated as ending in and hence the oblique forms of their inflexional 
bases end either in or in ^ or in and are, therefore, Prakrit genitives 
formed according to the analogy of the real nouns in All these nouns in. 
consonants are either Sanskritic or foreign ; but never derived from the 
Prakrit, as no Prakrit word may end in a consonant, see Pr. Prak. IY. 6—II. 
18. Their treatment has been explained in Essay III. 
d. The inflexional bases of Marathi nouns (masc. or fern.) in v, 
^T, and neuter nouns in ^ have no oblique form at all. As regards the 
few exceptional masc. nouns in ^ and ^ and neuter nouns in see the 
next paragraph. 
e. There remain the masc. nouns in "^T to which correspond fem. 
nouns in i; and the neuter nouns in y ; the masc. nouns in ^ to which 
correspond fem. nouns in ^ and the neuter nouns in ^ ; and the masc. 
nouns in ^ to which correspond the fem. nouns in and the neuter nouns 
in The inflexional base of the first two kinds of nouns has an oblique 
form in (masc. and neuter) and in (fem.). The inflexional base of 
the third kind has an oblique form in (masc. and neuter) and ^ (fem.). 
The explanation of these oblique forms is more complicated. They are, as 
I shall show, the organic genitives of Prakrit nouns formed by the affix 
(masc. and neuter,) and 3TF (fem.). It will be necessary to dispose first of 
the latter question ; viz. the presence in the Gaurian languages of a class 
of nouns which are descended from Prakrit nouns formed by the peculiar 
Prakrit affix (cf. Pr. Prak. IY, 25.) Here I will only draw attention 
to an important coincidence. Masculine and neuter nouns in ^ have (as 
has been shown) an oblique form in (being the corruption of the Prakrit 
genitive in ^^T). Their corresponding fem. nouns in ^ have an oblique 
form in ^ (being a corruption of their Prakrit genitive in ^FI^). Similarly 
we have here masc. and neuter oblique forms in and and their 
corresponding feminines in and The conclusion may be drawn that 
the masc. nouns in and ^ and the neuter nouns in ^ and ^ which 
the oblique form in ’sjt, were originally masc. and neuter nouns in sj or 
= or ^ or ; and that their oblique form in ^jr is a cor- 
