31 
1874.] A. F. Rudolf Hoernle— Essays on the Gaurian Languages. 
articled noun) ; they are also employed to express cont ;mpt, or affection, or 
diminution.* 
For this latter purpose only (with a very few exceptions enumerated 
above, as ^frfqi bitch , old woman, etc.), they are used in High-Hindi, 
where, therefore, their employment is very rare. E. g., the bye-form 
of wife, is used in the Ganwari in the place of but otherwise, if 
used at all it expresses a contemptible wife? So in High Hindi,means 
a large stick, a pole ; but a small stick, and so forth. In erotic poetry, 
as may be expected, these feminine forms are very common ; e. g., in the 
following verse of Akhtar, 
'JRT»T f%*rr sffrPJT II 
^ *f3TRrrT T WfrT^T II 
^ "V -V -V si, —. o r -a 
Ji?: farrar r 3 ft ^ 
Here wfrT^T, ^f<T*lT, are the dimunitives (in the plural) respec¬ 
tively of the feminine nouns qTrf word (Prakrit ®[TfT or ^Trft breast 
(Prakrit ^tTT or wfwr) ; night (Prakrit or ^f^l). 
I proceed to the examination of the inflexional base of the masculine 
nouns. The direct form of the inflexional base of masculine nouns in % 
like that of the feminine and neuter nouns, may end in a twofold wise . 
viz. either in % as milk, heat, etc., or in as done, iip^T, horse, 
etc. In High Hindi, Marathi, Panjabi, and Bangali, the termination % 
* Of these three meanings that of diminution is no doubt the original one, as it easily 
explains the other two. For general experience shows that in all languages, nouns are used 
in preference, in their diminutive form, to express affection or contempt. Moreover, it 
may be observed that in the speech of the uneducated, the diminutives are frequently used 
without any particular meaning attached to the diminutive form of the word. If with this 
fact be put together the further fact, that in Sanskrit diminutives (expressive of affection) 
are formed by means of the affix and that Prakrit, the source of the modern verna¬ 
culars, is the speech of the uneducated, the frequent, apparently meaningless, use of 
words formed with the affix in Prakrit, and the extensive use of nouns in igj or 
(^cr) iii Gaurian finds a natural solution, at the same time that the theory of the derivation 
of the Gaurian nominal termination qjf from the Prakrit termination and the Skr. 
termination qjqf receives a strong confirmation. As examples of the affix ^ being used 
in Skr. to form diminutives of endearment, I may quote the following from the Uttara 
Rama Charitra, 
^ I i. e. 
king haste thee, deliver the queen’s pet. 
or ^ fc^rfaiTT ^T: T i. e. 
king rejoice over the victory of the queen’s pet. 
Here is used with reference to an elephant, and alternates with the other 
word of endearment which is also applied to the elephant occasionally. See Uttara 
Rama Charitra Act III, pp. 96, 97- See also Bopp, Krit. Gramm der Skr. Sprache, p. 327 
(under and 2nd Ed. In the 4th ed., the reference to diminutives lias apparent¬ 
ly been withdrawn. 
