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APRIL, 1908.1
THE MAHARASHTRI AND MARATHI.
187
many respects differs from both. He therefore considers Marathi to form a group by itself. The facts may be broadly laid down as follows:
1. Agreement between Marathi and inner languages. The prononciation is generally the same. Thus, and 6 are distinguished as in Gujarati, Panjabi, and partly in Rajasthani. The short a is pronounced as the u in English 'nut,' etc. The fact that Marathi has two 8-sounds cannot be adduced to prove a nearer connexion with eastern languages. The Bengali must be compared with the corresponding sound in Mågadhi Prakrit, which was used in all cases instead of every old 8-sound, without any attention being paid to the sound following it. The é in Marathi, on the other hand, is only used before i, i, and é, in which cases it is due to the common pronunciation of a y before these vowels (compare yénz, én, to come), a tendency which is hardly compatible with the phonetical laws prevailing in eastern languages which are averse to an initial y or w. The pronunciation of the palatals as, ta, de, etc., is not an exclusively eastern peculiarity. It is not only common in Bengali, but a similar pronunciation also prevails in some forms of Rajasthåni and Gajarâti. Compare also Kasmiri. In Marathi this pronunciation is not the only one, the true palatal sound being preserved in the same cares as those in which a dental & becomes a palatal. The Marathi system is the same as that prevailing in Telugu, and it is also possible to think of Dravidian influence. On the whole there can be no doubt that the pronunciation of Marathi, as stated by Dr. Hoernle, l. c., mainly agrees with that of western languages of the inner family. It will be remembered that Mâliârâshtri phonology had the same relation to Saurasêni, the inner Prakrit.
The demonstrative and relative prononns end in 6 in the nominative singular masculine in Marathi as in Western Hindi, while the Eastern dialects have forms ending in é. Compare Marathi dao, Bihårt jé, who. In connection with this point it should be noted that the nominative singular of a-bases in old Marathi ends in u or 6, which corresponds to ô in the Western Prakrits, and not to é in the eastern. Thus old Marathi nandanu, a son ; rávo, a king. The nominative of strong masculine basea ends in á in Marathi. This d is, however, probably the direct development of an old a-6. An a-l or a-a would regularly become é in modera Mara bi. It seems, on the whole, difficult to base any conclusions on the different forms of the nominative of these bases. Elee we should be obliged to separate Markthi from Konkani, Gajarati and Rajasthani from Panjabi and some dialects of Western Hindi.
It will be seen from the preceding remarks that Marathi agrees with the inner languages in the same points as those in which Mâhârâshtri marched with Sauraseni, viz., in pronunciation and in the 6-form of the nominative singular of masculine a-bases.
Marathi also agrees with the inner languages in two other important points, in the regular age of a case of the agent and the consequent passive construction of the past tense of transitive verbs, and in forming the infinitive with an n-suffix.
With regard to the former of these two points, it does not seem to be of fundamental importance. The origin of the past tense from a past participle passive, and the corresponding use of the past participle in all Prakrits as a passive form of the past, clearly sbow that the active construction of such tenses so often found in eastern verpaculars is a comparatively late development, and may thns be compared with the dropping of the neuter gender in most IndoAryan vernaculars. With regard to the second point, the formation of the infinitive by adding an -suffix, it should be borne in mind that Marathi also possesses a v-infinitive, corresponding to the 6-forms in the east, and that this latter formation of the infinitive by no means is confined to the outer languages, but is quite common in Gujarati, a language which certainly belongs to the inner family.
