97 
1373.] A. F. Rudolf Hoornle —.Essays on the Guurian Languages. 
is rendered almost certain by the fact, that the Hindi equivalent of 
the Marathi gerundial ending is or which can only 
have arisen from a Prakrit ending Thus the Marathi cor- 
responds to the Hindi q\ vfif or . Now the 'proximate original of 
the Hindi form or must have been a Prakrit form esrcc^; 
hence it is probable that it was also, in the form the original of the 
Marathi form cfrpjffi though the ultimate original of both forms (Hindi as 
well as Marathi) was the Prakrit form or Moreover the word 
XTRT'f water , which is a contraction of the Prakrit form or qTvrlPA shows 
plainly, that if the Prakrit termination was modified to or 
it changed its final in Haurian according to rule into xf, and not to \ ; and 
that, therefore, in order to explain the change of the ultimate Prakrit form 
to in Marathi, we must assume, that first it was modified to 
and afterwards to —2., It has been proved already that 
there is nothing extraordinary or irregular in a change of a Prakrit base in 
in the Norn. Sing, to a base in in the Hen. Sing. 
The conclusion, then, which we must draw, appears to be this, that the 
termination P of Marathi neuters is in all cases of substantives (as PtP^), 
adjectives (as ^iT), and participles (as ef-^T), and probably in the case of 
gerunds (as a contraction of the old Harman termination and the 
Prakrit termination 
In order to complete the subject of the neuter inflexional base, I may 
add, that in the modern literary form of the Hindi-class Hannan languages 
(excepting Hujarati) the final anunasika of the neuter direct form of the 
inflexional base is always dropped. Thus in High Hindi we have for 
the Brai Bhasha and Alwari 35 rP.fi Again compare rffpi water with 
Marathi qrpfi, and High Hindi potatoe with Marathi ; this is but 
the legitimate conclusion of a regular phonetic process affecting the final 
nasal. In Sanskrit we have final ip; in Prakrit final ip is toned down to 
the anuswara ; in Haurian the anuswara is attenuated to the anunasika ; and 
in modern literary Haurian finally the anunasika is dropped. The result of 
this process is the disappearance of the neuter gender in the modern 
literary Hindi-class Haurian languages (excepting Hujarati); for by the 
dropping of the final anunasika the neuter and the masculine become 
identical and indistinguishable in form ; and hence were also not distin¬ 
guished in gender. 
It was remarked above when treating of the Marathi neuters in p 1 ' 
that the formation of the final P" took place, as it were, on the confines or 
the debatable ground between Prakrit and Haurian ; and that, therefore, 
* See Jlema Chandra I, 101. Subha Chandra II, 59. 
fi Similarly the Dative post-position in High Hindi is for Braj Bhasha ^ 
13 N 
