35 
1874.] A. F. Rudolf Hoernle— Essays on the Gaurian Languages. 
accent, or the stress which is laid on a particular syllable in pronouncing a 
Hindi word; what in prosody is called the ictus ). The forms in namely 
are accented on the ante-penultimate; thus is pronounced with 
the airesis or ictus on the first a and thesis on the last a, but the forms in 
are accented on the ultimate, thus is pronounced ramati. The fact 
is that when the final of is reduced, the accent is thrown forward 
on to the penultimate, that is, is pronounced ramava, and if the final 
a be quiescent, the form becomes naturally ramau, as any one can 
convince himself by actual experiment. 
Instances of the other kind of masculine form, which inserts not the 
semivowel but into the Prakrit termination (instead of contract¬ 
ing it by sandhi into *%) occur in the Braj Bhasha class of Low Hindi and 
in Marathi. All the phenomena, which have been noticed in connection 
with the bye-form in ^cfT and ^T, occur also in the case of these bye-forms 
in ; thus, e. g., the Prakrit forms with inserted will give the 
Gaurian form with the accent on the ante-penultimate (i. e., 
airesis on the first a, and thesis on the last a), if final ^1 be retained. But 
there is an alternative form, in which the final is reduced to % thus 
here the accent falls on the penultimate a, and the final ^ becoming 
quiescent, the word becomes ramai, with the accent on the ultimate 
Both these double forms in and ^ exist in Gaurian. But while the 
double forms in and WT are both found in the Gaurian Low-Hindx, 
I believe it is only the form in t? which is found in the Braj Hindi, and 
on the other hand the form in appears to be confined to Marathi. The 
same name, e. g., which in Marathi is (or as it is customary to 
write), is in (the Braj) Hindi ^ ; again Marathi is in Hindi 
(Prakrit Sanskrit ^jssj^r:). I believe it is the custom in Marathi, 
to suppress, in writing such word-forms, the initial ^ of the affix ^i^TT and 
join the ^ on to the final consonant of the base; thus for 
for 3T^T*fT, etc. This is merely a peculiarity of writing, which, in this case, 
is accommodated to the pronunciation ; just as in Hindi some people write 
STT^rTT for oTRTrrr, etc. In all Gaurian languages a short between two 
accented syllables (one airesis , the other thesis ) is quiescent; and of course 
two different systems of writing may be followed, either the writing may be 
accommodated to the present pronunciation (as in Marathi in this case), or 
to the etymology of the word. Perhaps it would be more consistent and 
more scientific to generally agree to follow the former method. There need 
be no fear of any obscuration thereby of the etymology of the word. But 
at all events uniformity should be observed; not some classes of words 
* In all these bye-forms the Marathi retains the Prakrit ante-penultimate vowel 
unchanged, whereas in Hindi it is always shortened. 
