29 
1874.] A. F. Rudolf Hoernle —Essays on the Gaurian Languages. 
corresponds to a masculine termination in Prakrit, qpfr: in Sanskrit, 
and to a neuter termination in Prakrit, in Sanskrit. That is, the 
base-termination is weakened in the feminine to Jf. It has been 
already stated in Essay IV, that the base may be modified not only to 
but also to A few instances of the latter modification occur 
already in Prakrit, as regards the masculine and neuter but as regards 
the feminine, it is both in Sanskrit and the literary Prakrit almost an 
exclusive rule to admit only the modification into But in Gaurian, the 
modification into is not uncommon, and we may conclude from this fact 
that it was probably a modification peculiar to the vulgar or colloquial 
Prakrit (as opposed to the more artificial scenic Prakrit). For we must refer 
all Gaurian feminine nouns in to this base in vafqi. Their termination is 
tli q proper Gaurian modification of the Prakrit or Skr. exactly as 
Gaurian termination qj is the modification or corruption of the Prakrit 
termination Skr. ^TT- For the Prakrit termination may become 
in Gaurian either, by inserting the connecting vowel q, ^qr; or, by making 
sandhi , it may become in the first instance and finally % the present 
form. Feminine nouns, terminating with the first of the two forms NSqr, are, 
as we shall see later on, very common in Ganwari Hindi, e. g. #TfqT wife be¬ 
sides sfpf; etc. The second of the two forms ^ occurs, as the termination of 
many feminine nouns, in Low and High Hindi, and in all other Gaurian lan¬ 
guages ; e. g., sand is in Gaurian , in Sanskrit it is q'pqqfT, in Prakrit 
qiqjqjT ; the Gaurian reduces the final of the latterto and then contracts 
(by sandhi)f the preceding ^ with the final qf to ; thus giving us qr^ the 
present Gaurian form. The process is in every respect like that by which 
the feminine termination is formed by the Gaurian (see above, p. 26). Again 
leech ; in Sanskrit it is ; in Prakrit oPsTSiT, which changes in 
CV * 
Gaurian through the intermediate form to apjf. Again hear vn^l, in 
Hindi masc. ; but in Marathi also feminine (see Manual, p. 36. e.) ; in Sanskrit 
it is W or, with addition of the affix q\, wqf or and in the low form 
or ; all these forms occur ; the fern, of them would be BT%qiT or 
the latter would be in Prakrit in the intermediate form 
nmm ; 
j 
®* fr BTfiLtW feminine of BTfiX not • •qf^^irr feminine of • ^ftFe^qT 
feminine of q}Trft<T; Jiq'sffaj feminine of jp^-- ^jaiqtftqr feminine of TT^qq, e f c - See 
* * C\ 
Dadoba Pandurang’s Mar. Grammar, pp. 36, 37. The reason, no doubt, is that the ante¬ 
penultimate is not an originally long vowel, but only a Gaurian formation. 
# See note 5, p. 105, in the 2nd Essay; Journal Asiatic Society, Bengal, Vol. XLII, 
Part I, 1873. 
f The sandhi of -f- qj to ^ may also he explained, like that of ^ 4 to ^ 
by the lengthening of \3 to ^ as a compensation for the shortening and quiescence of final 
