A. F. Rudolf Hoernle —Essays on the Gaurian Languages . (37 
which is manifestly the base from which the Marathi dTCR is derived. 
Next take the alternative form The nom. sing, neuter of it is 
Vararuchi’s sutra Pr. Prak. I, 18 shows that Prakrit has a tendency to 
shorten the vowel ^ in such final syllables as ^ or T^), etc. The 
following examples are there given ; Skr. = Pr. ; Skr. Pjfftd = 
Pr. ; Skr. — p r . <4^ ; Skr. = Pr. etc. We 
may well assume that in the vernacular Prakrit these vulgar forms, of which 
only a very few were admitted into the literary Prakrit, were much more 
general and regular ; especially in the gerunds formed by the affix ^pcfTsj. 
Accordingly we may conclude that the nom. sing, neuter became 
or (with insertion of euphonic '\) Finally (or 
) becomes in Gaurian contracted to dKW . For T is an extremely 
common substitute for any of the combinations both 
in Prakrit and Gaurian.f E. g. the syllable contained in all causal 
verbs becomes in Prakrit T, as or for Skr. ^KSjfdT, etc. 
Again the Skr. fdTHH and become in Prakrit (properly 
-f fcff) and vvf -f- Tdt ( = TWf + TW)- Again in Gaurian (old Hindi) 
the Skr. Part. Past Act. affix ^rT^Tl'iT, which in Prakrit becomes 
or ^5p3?,I becomes W; as Skr. difi£ffrd7*f, Pr. or 
Hindi efr%^ (in old Hindi of Chand Bafdai 3v%d). Again in low Hindi the Braj 
Bhasha^T$T of him, to him , in him , corresponds to the Gan war! 
^7, etc. Again in Bangali, in common conversation, a final or 
medial is contracted into y (see Forbes’ Bengali Gram. App. A. 4. p. 1(30. 
Shamaclmrn Sircar’s Bengali Gram. p. 149, note 45.) ; e. g., becomes 
becomes We shall meet with some more examples of 
this favorite contraction in the course of this Essay.§ Now the genitive ol 
* An example of this form we have perhaps in the following verse of Chand ; 
^ if% ii 
HT II Pr. Raj. 
i. e. The cutting of the finger of my hand will be the destruction of thy house, oh 
Chahuvan. The same form we have probably in the Bangali nouns of agency in 
(cf. Shamacharn’s Grammar, p. 149.) ; e. g., a doer = Eaipali cfpr^j — 
Hindi ^TT or ^rrij-^Twrr. 
f By analogy, ^ a substitution for the combinations ? ^>Tf, «TT, W d' 
asBrof Bhasha ^T^f = Ganwari ; Bangali -q^y in common conversation- 
; cf. Skr. = Pr. ^q^y, Gaur. ijysry. But q is, as a rule, substituted by ^ 
as W for ; and ^ by ^ ; e. g. in old and low Hindi he is both ^ and . 
J Of the change of the termination qysy into ^ in Prakrit, I have found oue 
example, in Mrichchhakati Act IV. p. 119, cfj^y^ Tfrf^i fd^dT = Sla> - THTdT 
fd*Td: 
§ Another example wo have in Pali and Prakrit. In Pali the affix of the Instr. 
Abl., Dat. and Gen of feminine nouns is *jy (or > 4 ). The corresponding affix in 
