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INTRODUCTION
- The importance of the Apachramśa language-to be virtuistic, the western Apabhramsa as outlined in the concluding portion of the celebrated Siddha Hemacandra grammar-in the history of the evolution of Western Indian New Indo-Aryan languages, particularly Gujarāti, Rajasthāni and Western Hindi, is immense. It is in fact the fountain-head from which these languages have emerged in course of time. Or, to be more precise, the Apabhramsa itself has gradually developed into these languages by the usual linguis:ic processes, as we shall see later on.
The late Mr. Madhusudan Modi compares its relationship with Gujarāti, Rājasthāni and Hindi to the one subsisting between Anglo-Saxon and English.'
Early or Proto-Gujarati is indeed indebted to Apabhramới, while the morphology of Gujarāti, Rājasthānı and Hindi--their nominal and verbal terminations and postpositions, etc.--are directly descended from Apabhramsa. And so is the vast flood of words of unknown origin-Deśya, onomatopoetic, ihyming—which abound in New Indo-Aryan languages. 2
Hence it is that Dr. L. P. Tessitori, the celebrated Italian philologist based his analysis of Old Western Rājasthani, which is almost synonymous with Old Gujarāti, mainly on Western Apabhramba.3 . 1. Vide : Madhusudan Chimanlal Modi, 'Apabhramśa Pāthāvali',
pub. Gujarat Vernacular Society, Ahmedabad, 1935, p. 9. : "अंग्रेजीनो मूलगत संबंध ऐग्लो-सेक्सन साथे छे; ...तेवी ज रीते गूजराती,
राजस्थानी अने पश्चिम हिंदुस्तानीनो मूलगत संबंध अपभ्रंश साथे छे." 2. Cf. Dr. H. C. Bhayani, ‘Vāgvyāpāra’, pub. Bhāratiya Vidyā
Bhavan, Bombay, 1954, p. 136 : "patil, al 2012 ભાષાઓના કેટલાક નામિક અને આખ્યાતિક પ્રત્યયેનું મૂળ આપણને સીધેસીધું અપભ્રંશ પ્રત્યમાં મળે છે...શબ્દભંડોળના વિષયમાં પણ અનેકાનેક દેશ્ય અને અજ્ઞાત મૂળના શબ્દોની, તથા પ્રાસરંગી અને રવાનુકારી તત્વની
પ્રચંડ ભરતી અપભ્રંશમાં રહેલા વલણનું ઉત્કટ સ્વરૂપ જ છે.” 3. Cf. Bhāyāni, op. cit., p. 135.
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