95 
1873.] A. F. Rudolf Hoernle— Essays on the Gaurian Languages. 
neuters in ^q* in early Gaurian lias been already amply proved. But there 
are two circumstances, which would seem to indicate a different derivation 
of the Marathi final 'A; viz. from a Prakrit final which in early Gaurian 
would become ^q (with insertion of euphonic q). Those two circumstances 
are ; 1. that the original of the termination if of the Marathi gerunds in 
qT (or r") is the Prakrit termination T^sj r, (e. g., quC^r doing is contracted 
from Prakrit qrTfvTRj), and that by parity, all Marathi- neuters in if are 
derived from Prakrit neuters in 2, that as the oblique form in qT of these 
neuters in is derived from the genitive of a Prakrit base in if we 
derive the direct form in q from the nominative Sing, of a Prakrit base in 
all difficulty attending the derivation of the oblique form is removed. 
Though it must be admitted, that these reasons are of considerable force, 
yet I think, the reasons which decide for the other view outweigh them. 
These are, 1., that it equalizes the derivation of the neuter nouns which 
are common to both Marathi and Hindi ; while the Prakrit termination 
(old Gaurian ^q) would explain easily the Gaurian neuters ending in 
as well as if, the Prakrit termination would only explain the 
Marathi ending q, but not the Hindi ending or ^, for which we 
would have to keep the Prakrit termination 2., There is the Marathi 
neuter termination x? which, to a certainty, is contracted from the Prakrit 
neuter termination TR3; if the Marathi neuter termination be also taken 
as a contraction of the Prakrit termination there is no intelligible reason, 
why in some words the ending should have been contracted into ^"and 
in others again into q . On the other hand, there is a very good reason for 
this difference, if we suppose that originally neuter nouns ended partly in 
partly in ^q ; and those ending in ^q contracted their final into if, 
while those ending in ^q contracted it into E. g. qiq" gold is 
contracted form the Prakrit old Gaurian ; but curds is 
' contracted from the Prakrit old Gaurian qffifq.—3., Again to 
anticipate a point which will be fully gone into in the next essay; 
to the Marathi neuters in if correspond Marathi masculines in ^srr; 
now according as the Marathi neuter in A is derived from an original form 
in ^q or ^q, the masculine in must also be derived from an original 
from in (RfqT) or ^RTT (^qT); but the form R|%T yields much more 
readily the contraction RfT (old Marathi %), than the form the latter 
could in the first instance give us only the contracted from qT; and though 
there is perhaps no absolute difficulty in assuming a contraction of qT to % 
(as in ^illT to high)* still it is not so easy and natural as the 
# In illustration miglit bo adduced tlio High Hindi participle past passive in ^p 
for the Braj Bhasha ones in qf; as II. Hindi qfRp for Braj Bhasha qn|jT. Here q^j 
may have arisen by the elision of q in qf^p But its origin may also have taken 
placo in a different manner. The corresponding participles in Marathi end in ^^pp 
which stands for the Skr. ending ; e. g. read is q^fT, the Skr. is qfa'cf:, tlio 
