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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
Thus Dr. Hoernle's grammar, with its highly doctrinal character, is at the same time as much a book of practical instruction as an essentially comparative work could be; and that not only for the Hindi dialect, which forms the groundwork of the exposition, but also for the other varieties of which it treats less directly.
What in reality has enabled Dr. Hoernle to fulfil without accident this plan with such great conciseness is the ingenious and consequently rigorous arrangement of his book, where everything comes in at its proper place, so that the commentary is for the most part contained in the statement itself. His grammar is not in fact the attempt of a beginner. Long before writing it, he had to some extent traced the plan in articles, much criticised at the time of their publication, in the Asiatic Journal of Bengal. Later he had shown his ability in a Grammar of the Garvari dialect, and, at different times, he had discussed the objections raised to some of his theories." This was not less necessary than that long preparation in Banâras itself, the centre and in some measure epitome of the whole of India, to bring out a work so perfectly thought out as that which occupies us, where to the smallest detail, all is foreseen and measured beforehand, and which, although brought out little by little in a Grammar of Eastern Hindi, was certainly constructed entire in the mind of the author before the first line of it was written.
In five sections, subdivided into twelve chapters and a greater number of sub-chapters and 570 paragraphs, Dr. Hoernle treats successively of the alphabets and of the phonetics; of suffixes and roots; of the flexion of the noun substantive, adjective, noun of number, and pronoun; of the flexion of the verb in all its forms, derived and compound; and lastly, of the indeclinables. A sixth section is reserved for specimens of Eastern Hindi as it is spoken in the environs of Banâras.
It is of this dialect, in fact, the Bhojpuri, that Dr. Hoernle treats in the first place. He gives a complete grammar of it, perfectly sufficient for the practical acquisition of the language. Following each paragraph and under the title affinities,' he then analyses the conformities or divergences which present themselves in com. parison with this type in the other dialects of Aryan origin. In the east the different forms of Bangali and Oriyâ, in the north the Himalayan
[NOVEMBER, 1882.
of Garhwal, of Kumaon and of Nepâl; in the west the various forms of western Hindi and further the dialects spoken in Gujarât, in Sindh and in the Panjab; lastly in the south the Marathi with its subdivisions. The comparative part is methodically distributed throughout the book. The historical portion is arranged in like manner at the end of each paragraph under the title of Derivation and Origin. Dr. Hoernle examines there what the facts are in the archaïc forms of the various idioms, when these are accessible in written or traditional works; since with the help of the Prakrits, of the Pali, and of the language of the more ancient inscriptions, he traces each of them to the Sanskrit, which, in a general way, may be regarded as the common source of them. This part of the book, which is the most interesting from a general linguistic point of view, is one of the most original in it. It is that also which will raise perhaps the most objections. Undoubtedly no one will blame Dr. Hoernle's tendency to explain everything by the Sanskrit. That is a tendency which has been traced in advance; each step forward in the philology of these languages having constantly reduced the number of facts which appeared to demand a different explanation. But it cannot be concealed that some among Dr. Hoernle's derivations are fanciful. No one will be disposed, for example, to recognise in the element ka, which analysis proves or establishes in so many suffixes of derivation or flexion, the representative of the Sanskrit krita. It is necessary, however, to add that Dr. Hoernle has himself taken care, in more than one place, to express reservation; but the positions taken, apparently the most rash, depended on analogies so numerous, on an experience so perfect in all the particulars of this linguistic domain, that a contradiction of which he had not himself recognised and described the possibility would rarely have the chance of being well-founded. As for myself, at least, who have especially to learn from this book, I cannot allow myself to criticise it.
A work thus arranged, supposes a classification and a genealogy of all the languages. This is in fact what he gives us in the introduction. Dr. Hoernle divides these idioms into four principal groups. Eastern group: the Eastern Hindi, Bangali, and Oriy&; Western group: the Western Hindi, Gujarati, Sindhi, and Panjabi ; Northern group: the Aryan languages of the Himalaya;
For the years 1872, 1873 under the title of Essays in aid of a Comparative Grammar of the Gaudian Languages. A Grammar of the Eastern Hindi commonly called Garwari: London, 1878.
3 Ind. Ant. vol. I, p. 356; vol. II, p. 210; vol. V, p. 119.
Dr. Hoernle would have made his Table of Alphabets
still more useful if he had replaced the early Alphabets (Maurya, Gupta, Valabhi), a little out of place here, by a more complete series of modern varieties and of the intermediate forms of the medieval ages.
An alphabetical list of roots intended for the grammar has been published separately in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1880, pp. 83ff.
