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VARIANT FORMS OF THE LOCATIVE IN MIDDLE INDO-ARYAN 85
But this differentiation between nouns and adjectives is by no means an absolute rule, even in this text. The ending -mmi does occur with nouns, though rarely, and it seems to convey greater emphasis and urgency: gahio kumāro kanthammi 'the prince was seized by the neck' (137.20).
There is abundant evidence throughout narrative Jain literature of the other closely linked tendencies, the survival of the ending -e in the immediate environment of the verb and in fixed locutions, thus antie 'in the vicinity of usually occurs before the verb and is very common, while antiammi is hardly, if ever, found. In fixed locutions such as place-names and times of day or of the year, the ending -e is used almost exclusively, e.g. paose ‘in the evening', Mayanamahusave ‘at the time of the great springfestival. That this usage was basic to Middle Indo-Aryan prose is proved further by the Niya inscriptions, where -e occurs mainly in samvatsare, māse, divase used in dating formulas (Burrow 1937: 24).
E. CONCLUSION A glance at the paradigms listed in Prākrit grammars may give the impression that there are a variety of different endings which could be used indiscriminately in Middle Indo-Aryan. The texts, however, show that many of these are regional and chronological variants possibly indicating scribal traditions, and some of them are of stylistic significance. The cases of optional usage emphasise the fact that the Jain texts reflects a living and evolving language, and have subtleties of expression that may often escape us.
REFERENCES
Texts quoted:
Acaranga-Sūtra, ed. W. Schubring, Leipzig 1910 (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des
Morgenlandes, Vol. XII, No. 4).
Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Maharastri, ed. Hermann Jacobi, Leipzig 1886.
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