Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 337

JUND, 1931)
GENERAL VIEW
1$$ 27-25
spoken in Kacch. Sindhi has received very little literary cultivation, and few books have been written in it. Its proper alphabet is Landå, which as usual varies from place to place, and is hardly legible. The Gurmukhi and Nāgari characters are also employed, but the Persian alphabet, with several additional letters for sounds peculiar to the language, is the one in general use.
* Pr. Gr., 27, 28; Grierson, JRAS, 1902, 47; Mk. XVIII (Ap.); RT, III, ii, 1 (Ap.); III, xv, 12 (Pd. Pr.)
27. South of the Kacchi dialect of Sindhi, the Outer band of the IAVs. is broken by Gujarāti. Although Gujarāti is one of the Intermediate languages, it bears, more especially in its northern forms, numerous traces of the old Outer language once spoken in Gujarat before it was occupied from the Midland. 1 South of Gujarati we come to the Southern Outer language, Marāthi (M.), the great daughter of Māhārāştri Prakrit. Marathi covers the north of the Deccan plateau and the strip of country between the Ghāts and the Arabian Sea. It is also the language of Berar, the ancient Vidarbha, and of a good portion of the country to its east. It stretches across the centre of the Central Provinces, and, in a very corrupt form, ogcupies most of the State of Bastar, where it merges into Oriyā, through the Bhatri dialect of that language. To its south it has Dravidian languages, and to its north, in order from west to east, Gujarāti, Rājasthāni, Hindi, and Eastern Hindi. The first three are connected with the Midland, and Marātbi does not merge into them, a sharp border line existing everywhere between the two forms of speech. In the east it shows several points of agreement with the neighbouring Chattisgarhi dialect of Eastern Hindi, while it shades off gradually into Oriyā, the former of which is closely related to, while the latter is actually a member of the Outer band.
Such are, 0.g., the existence of a broad a, sounded like the ain'all'; the change of ai to ä; of k to and oto e; the frequent confusion between dentals and cerebrale; an obliquo case in a; and a post participle formed with the letter L.
28. Marathi has three main dialects. The standard dialect, commonly called 'Dēki Marăthi' is spoken in its greatest purity in the country round Pună. Varieties of this are spoken in the northern and central Konkan, and are hence often called 'Konkani,' but the true Konkani (Kön.), spoken in the southern Konkan in the country near Goa, is a dialect quite different from these. The third dialect is the Marāthi of Berar and the Central Provinces, which differs from the standard chiefly in matters of pronunciation, Halbi is a mongrel mixture of Marathi and Dravidian tongues spoken in Bastar. Marathi is usually written and printed in the Nagari character, a modification of which, known as mõdi, or 'twisted,' and invented by Bäläji Avaji,' Secretary to the famous Sivaji (1627-80), is used by some for current correspondonoe. The Kanarese alphabet is generally employed for writing Köökani, but amongst the numerous native Christians who speak that dialect, the Roman character is often used. Marathi has copious literature, and many poetical works of great value are written in it. As Beames (Comp. Grammar, i, 38) says, Marāthi is one of those languages which may be called playful. It delights in all sorts of jingling formations, and has struck out a larger quantity of secondary and tertiary words, diminutives and the like, than any of the cognate languages. Compared with the analytical Hindi, the synthetic Marathi has a rather complicated grammatical system, and in this and other respecte Hindi bears to Marathi much the same relationship that, in Europe, English bears to German. In one important particular, Marathi differs from all other Indo-Aryan vernaculars. It retains many traces of the ancient Vedic tone-accents, here converted into weak stress-accents; while tho
19