44 
A. F. Rudolf IToernle— Essays on the Gaurian Languages. [No. 1, 
qg definiteness or affection or contempt. In High Hindi, they are rarely used, 
and when used, then only to express contempt or affection (as q^qi dear 
brother) or diminution (as a small pot.') There are, however, a small 
number of masc. nouns in ?;qr, which are, altogether incorporated into the 
High Hindi, and of which no alternative form in ^ exists at all ; as iifeqr wolf 
and a few others. # Otherwise, the usual form of such nouns in High Hindi 
as well as in the other (literary) Gaurian languages, is that in and 3T. 
The process by which the Prakrit terminations and are 
turned into ^ and ^ in Gaurian, is one altogether analogous to that by 
which the Prakrit feminine terminations and qqT are turned, in Gaurian, 
into ^ and It has been already fully explained. Its application to masc. 
nouns will be best shown by a few examples ; e. g., Skr. qfqqr: scorpion be¬ 
comes in Prakrit or or fqf^'qr ; in Gaurian, by one of its laws, 
the final ib is reduced to qr or % thus fbarq or or ; next, by 
another Gaurian law, the final hiatus-vowels are contracted by sandhi; thus 
we have the forms (Hindi), fbq (Mar.), and fb^t (Naip.) Again, Skr. 
qT?TT or amplified brother ; Prak. VfT^T or ; in Gaur., through 
the intermediate stage of and they become and Again, 
Skr. qqxft, Pr. qqfq% or qqq%; in Gaur. first qqfcq and qqqq, next 
qqbb and qqq, etc. 
The correctness of this theory of derivation of the Gaurian masculine 
nouns in ^ and qq receives strong support from the oblique form, which 
most nouns in ^ and a few nouns in ^ admit in Marathi. Most nouns in 
^ do not admit an oblique form ; while most nouns in ^ do admit one. This 
is quite in order; for, as I have shown in a former place, the termination 
^ is generally an altogether Gaurian formation, being a reduction of the 
original Gaurian termination %, itself a contraction of the Prakrit termina¬ 
tion qqr. On the other hand, the Gaurian termination ^ is a partly 
Prakritic formation, being an immediate contraction of the Prakrit 
termination Similarly, the Gaurian termination ^ in those few nouns 
which admit an oblique form , is a partly Prakrit formation, being an 
immediate contraction of the Prakrit termination 
The oblique form of the masculine nouns in ^ terminates in q[; that 
of the masculine nouns in "3* in qr; e. g., qrqft gardener has genitive 
TTFSrqT; ^Tbd barber , genitive ^TqrqT ; v?T3? brother, genitive vqqT qT; 
fqq scorpion, genitive fbqiqr, etc. It has been stated already, that the 
Skr. ifqqf: becomes in Prakrit fbl>%; the genitive is in Sanskrit 
in Prakrit fbw'qqj or or fbwqnq; in Gaurian the latter becomes 
* The reason of this exception is plain ; it is simply to avoid confusion; e. g., 
the short form of qfbqi could not be distinguished from sheep, except by the gender 
the former being masc., the latter feminine. Vjfbqj means literally the sheep-catcher. 
