Ukti Vyakti Prakarana

Author(s): Damodar Pandit
Publisher: Singhi Jain Shastra Shiksha Pith Mumbai

Page 75

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A STUDY OF THE NEW INDO-ARYAN SPEECH
This -nha, -na is changed to a mere nasalisatioth as well (e. g. Hindi (Khari-bo!ī) oblique p base in - , Panjabi and Rajasthani oblique pl. base in ã, and Standard Bengali honorific pronoun-bases with nasalisation, beside dialectal equivalents of these with -n, as in tăand tān'his (honorific) <MIA. tānam for O1A. teşām).
The locative singular affix in -ã has been discussed before ( $ 40). Locative -ahî>-až>-ă probably took place later than the change of the instrumental plural -aħi>-ai>-e as discussed above.
The full form of the locative affix -hi, -hã, after it had the above phonological modification in Old Kosali as it was evolving out of its corresponding Ap&bhramśa (the hypothetical Ardha-māgadhi Apabhramśa), appears to have been re-introduced from Western Apabhraíś& as a literary affix, and in this matter there was also the influence of the contiguous Old Braj speech (Kanauji and Braj proper). Possibly the influence of settlers from the tracts to the west of the Kosali area-the Pachāhā tract—who used the older form -hi (hi) for the locative as a distinct affix (and had not combined it with the preceding vowel as in the Kosali speech) and also employed -u for the nominative of masculine (and neuter) nouns, had also a good deal to do with the acceptance and estăblishment in Kosali of this very helpful affix. Further to the east, where there was no literary or communal re-inforcement of this -hi (-hã), it met with an early nirvāņa by being combined with the preceding -a- : OIA. *ghrdha-dhi>*grha-dhi> *garha-dhi>MIA., NIA. ghora-hi>ghara-i>Old Bengali ghare, with no further occurrence of gharahi (outside of literary Western Apabhramśa which was cultivated in Bengal to some extent, but was not so strong as in the Kosala area); cf. Old Bengali hiahi<*hrda-dhi, which normally became hie in Middle Bengali.
This -, -hi of MIA., which became an immensely important case-affix 'for the noun from Apabhramsa times, is doubtless of locative origin. The OIA. pronominal locative affix -smin gave in Early MIA. -ssã or -ssi as in the Eastern dialects (e. g. Asokan Barā bar cave inscription pavatasi = *pavvatassi), and -mhi aicin the Midland (e. g. Pati pabbatamhi). The history of -ssi is not clear in later times,-it evid, ntly died out, and words of location or proximity (like artaḥ, madl ya > mājha, sts. maddha> mădha> măha, or a form DIA'. *madha, a tetted from the Avestan masa, as verbally suggested to me by Prof. Jules Bloch, giving M[A. maha) were added to the noun to denote the locative. The Midland and Western