Comprehensive Critical Dictionary of Prakrit Languages Volum 01

Author(s): A M Ghatage
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

Page 14

(*7)
division of the bigger family. A language grows and assumes different forms, and each one of them may further repeat the same process. Thus we can well speal: of the genealogy of a language with its ne rer and distant relations, provided we remember that this is. after all, a figurative way of expression.
2. Indo Aryan Languages
The Indo-Aryan languages (so called to emphasise the fact that they are of Arvan descent and belong to India, so as to be distinguished from other languages of Non-Aryan descent of the country and trom Aryan languages current outside hd belong to the Indo-European IE.) family (possibly itself forming a branch of an older family with Hittite), which includes other groups like the Hellenic. Italic, Keltic, Germanic, Slavic etc They form an important branch of the Aryan group along with the Iranian branch with the inclusion of a possible intermediate group called Dardic. In the Indo-Iranian group itselt the two main branches differ from each other more on account of innovatices and rapid changes on the side of the Iranian larguages than on the part of the ind -Ary group which on the whole shows itself more conservative.
The changes on the Indo-Aryan side, though less radical, are of greater importance to us. They include the change of us and cu to e ardo (Sk. téda Av. vēda, Sk radyati Av. raosayeiti); of a: and au into a and au; the change of palatal z, 24 into j, h Sk, yajute Av. yazute, Sk hisia Av. zasta); the loss of voiced sibilantske 2. 2 (Sk néhstha Av. nazlisa Sl: duru
klám Av dužūctum); the creation of a new series of retroflex sounds including the nasal and the sibilant $; the creation of groups like cel and ks from various earlier groups. In morphology we have the form náma 1st per pro Gen. sing. for man of Avesta; the ract brito speak for the original ru and many analogie d forms like the 1st per act. thematic ending t The two branches a so differ in the treatment cfr (Sk. sakit Av. hak rat) and in the grade of the termination of the medial present part. (weak in Av. mua: baremna, strong in Sk. -māna, bháramāņa).
While most of these enly stages are reconstructed with the help of the comparative method we are on micre secure ground when we eater the history of the IA. languages. From Raveda (RV.) onwards we have a mass of documentary evidence marking the different stages in the growth these languages But the ev.dence is of varying value Based on bread considerations, it is customary to di ide the history of these languages into three stages, which are not strictly chro
nological in view of the fact that languages of the earlier stage continued to be artificially cultivated after they had become purely literary idioms. Thus we speak of the OIA. or Sanskrit, the MIA, or Prakrit and the NIA. or the stage of the modern languages. The OIA. includes the Vedic language (wherein we can distinguish the language of R. and of the other Samhitas). the Classical Sanskrit of Panini-Patanjali), the Epic language (of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana ), the Sanskrit of the Jains and Budhists and what we can infer about the spoken idioms of those days. The whole of this group derives its unity more on account of a rigid and well defined phonetic pattern to be adhered to, than common morphologic 1 structure, which on the contrary, shows a steady process of growth and simpli fication. This is strongly brought out by the attempts of later writers at hypersanskritisation and the use of such foreign words only as are in agreement with the Sanskrit phonetic system. Even then each one of these speeches has its own features which distinguish it from the others Naturally the majority of them are grammatical as distinct from phonological.
The MIA. group includes a number of languages and d'alects, all showing a strong family likeness and forming the next stage in the growth of the Indo-Aryan. These languages can be arranged into different groups according to the purpose for which they were used those used for religious preaching and those for secular literature like dramas. epics ard popular tales), according to locality of the dialects on which they are based (those of the North, of the Midland, of the East and Sonth), according to the form in which they are preserved for us (as literary, inscriptional and on other monumen s like coins and idols) and chronological according to the more or less archaic or developed forms shown by them. Each one of these classifications has its value and helps us in judging the linguistic nature of the Prakrits in the form in which we now possess them. We can see how the use of Maharastri for the composition of song and iyrics and writing long epics m. king use of Yamakas and other tours-de-force, is partly responsible for the form in which we find it. The use of Sauraseni and Magadhi with their sub-dialects and rarely Ardha-Magadhi and Faisäci (?) in the dr. mas side by side with Sar-krit has led to the effacement of finer dialecsical d flerenes and some overl. ppings between them. The inscriptional Piskrits are influenced to some extent by the form of writing in which the gemination of the consonants (length) remains unmarked and the order of the members of consonant-groups remains uncertain. Even the treatment of these Pra