Some Topics in the Development of OIA MIA NIA

Author(s): H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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4. When we come to MIA. (especially Pk. and Ap.) we find the following type of the chain of present tense and perfective participle forms of certain intransitive verbs ending in -ā-? Examples :
milāyai : milāņagilāyai : gilāņaniddāyai : niddāņaviddāyai : viddāņavijjha(ya)i : vijjhäņapalāyai : palānaagghāyai : agghāņanivvãi : nivvānauvvāi : uvvāņasammāi : sammāņa
Besides we have similar new intranstive verbs like orummāi ‘dries up!, vikkā(ya)i : ‘sells'; ulhāi 'is extinguished', kummāņai 'withered'. dhanai 'is kind'. Some of these verbs have come down to NIA. languages like Gujarati. More importantly, this grouping of verbal forms gave rise, on the one hand, to new stative denominatives in Gujarati (cidāvũ 'be irritated', laṁbāvũ ‘be lengthened'). Secondly, linked with the Perfective participle in - ņa-the final -à-of the intransitives became established as passive-fomative suffix. This filled up the gap : created by the merger of the earlier Pk. passive suffix -ijja- with the optative-ijja-and by the alternative form-iya- loosing its passive sense, and coming to function as the Present first person plural suffix.
Notes * This is translated from my book 'Gujarati Bhāṣānā Itihāsni Ketlik
Samasyā-o' (1976), 59-71. It is the text of the fifth lecture in the K.P. Trivedi Memorial Lectures delivered by me at the South Gujarat University on 15, 16 and 17 December 1975. Medieval Awadhi, Bengali etc. sometimes used ā-passives and their perfective participles in -ņ- (Chatterji,) 'In some NIA languages, notably Gujarati (and marginally in