Online Encyclopedia

HINDOSTANI (properly Hindustani, of o...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 482 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: it!
HINDOSTANI (properly Hindustani, of or belonging to Hindostan'), the name given by Europeans to an Indo-Aryan dialect (whose home is in the upper Gangetic Doab and near the city of Delhi), which, owing to political causes, has become the great lingua franca of modern India. The name is not employed by natives of India, except as an imitation of the English nomenclature. Hindostani is by origin a dialect of Western Hindi, and it is first of all necessary to explain what we mean by the term " Hindi " as applied to language. Modern Indo-Aryan languages fall into three groups,—an outer band, the language of the Midland and an intermediate band. The Midland consists of the Gangetic Doab and of the country to its immediate north and south, extending, roughly speaking, from the Eastern Punjab on the west, to Cawnpore on its east. The language of this tract is called "Western Hindi"; to its west we have Panjabi (of the Central Punjab), and to the east, reaching as far as Benares, Eastern Hindi, both Intermediate languages. These three will all be dealt with in the present article. Panjabi and Western Hindi are derived from Sauraseni, and Eastern Hindi from Ardham gadha Prakrit, through the corresponding Apabhramsas (see PRAKRIT). Eastern Hindi differs in many respects from the two others, but it is customary to consider it together with the language of the Midland, and this will be followed on the present occasion. In 1901 the speakers of these three languages numbered: Panjabi, 17,070,961; Western Hindi, 40,714,925; Eastern Hindi, 22,136,358. Linguistic Boundaries.—Taking the tract covered by these three forms of speech, it has to its west, in the western Punjab, Lahnda (see SINDHI), a language of the Outer band. The parent of Lahnda once no doubt covered the whole of the Punjab, but, in the process of expansion of the tribes of the Midland described in the article INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES, it was gradually driven back, leaving traces of its former existence which grow stronger as we proceed westwards, until at about the 74th degree of east longitude there is a mixed, transition dialect. To the west of that degree Lahnda may be said to be established, the deserts of the west-central Punjab forming a barrier and protecting it, just as, farther south, a continuation of the same desert has protected Sindhi from Rajasthan. It is the old traces of Lahnda which mainly differentiate Panjabi from Hindostani. To the south of Panjabi and Western Hindi lies Rajasthani. This language arose in. much the same way as Panjabi. The expanding Midland language was stopped by the desert from reaching Sindhi, but to the south-west it found an unobstructed way into Gujarat, where, under the form of Gujarati, ' " Hindustan " is a Persian word, and in modern Persian is pronounced " Hindustan." It means the country of the Hindus. In medieval Persian the word was " Hindustan," with an o, but in the modern language the distinctions between e and i and between o and u have been lost. Indian languages have borrowed Persian words in their medieval form. Thus in India we have sher, a tiger, as compared with modern Persian shir; go, but modern Pers. gu• bosun, but modern Pers. bustdn. The word " Hindu " is in medieval Persian " Hindu " representing the ancient Avesta hendaea (Sanskrit, saindhava), a dweller on the Sindhu or Indus. Owing to the influence of scholars in modern Persian the word " Hindu " is now established in English and, through English, in the Indian literary languages; but " Hindu " is also often heard in India. " Hindostan " with o is much more common both in English and in Indian languages, although " Hindustan " is also employed. Up to the days of Persian supremacy inaugurated in Calcutta by Gilchrist and his friends, every traveller in India spoke of " Indostan " or some such word, thus bearing testimony to the current pronunciation. Gilchrist introduced " Hindoostan," which became " Hindustan " in modern spelling. The word is not an Indian one, and both pronunciations, with o and with u, are current in India at the present day, but that with o is unquestionably the one demanded by the history of the word and of the form which other Persian words take on Indian soil. On the other hand " Hindu " is too firmly established in English for us to suggest the spelling " Hindo." . The word " Hindi " has another derivation, being formed from the Persian Hind, India (Avesta hindu, Sanskrit sndhu, the Indus). " Hindi " means " of or belonging to India," while " Hindu " now means " a person of the Hindu religion." (Cf. Sir C. J. Lyall, A Sketch of the Hindustani Language, p. 1).it broke the continuity of the Outer band. Eastern Hindi, as an Intermediate form of speech, is of much older lineage. It has been an Intermediate language since, at least, the institution of Jainism (say, 500 B.C.), and is much less subject to the influence of the Midland than is Panjabi. To its east it has Bihari, and, stretching far to the south, it has Marathi as its neighbour in that direction, both of these being Outer languages. Dialects.—The only important dialect of Eastern Hindi is Awadhi, spoken in Oudh, and possessing a large literature of great excellence. Chhattisgarhi and Bagheli, the other dialects, have scanty literatures of small value. Western Hindi has four main dialects, Bundeli of Bundelkhand, Braj Bhasha (properly "Braj Bhasa ") of the country round Mathura (Muttra), Kanauji of the central Doab and the country to its north, and vernacular Hindostani of Delhi and the Upper Doab. West of the Upper Doab, across the Jumna, another dialect, Bangaru, is also found. It possesses no literature. Kanauji is very closely allied to Braj Bhasha, and these two share with Awadhi the honour of being the great literary speeches of northern India. Nearly all the classical literature of India is religious in character, and we may say that, as a broad rule, Awadhi literature is devoted to the Ramaite religion and the epic poetry connected with it, while that of Braj Bhasha, is concerned with the religion of Krishna. Vernacular Hindostani has no literature of its own, but as the lingua franca now to be described it has a large one. Panjabi has one dialect, Dogri, spoken in the Himalayas. Hindostani as a Lingua Franca.—It has often been said that Hindostani is a mongrel " pigeon " form of speech made up of contributions from the various languages which met in Delhi bazaar, but this theory has now been proved to be unfounded, owing to the discovery of the fact that it is an actual living dialect of Western Hindi, existing for centuries in its present habitat, and the direct descendant of Sauraseni Prakrit. It is not a typical dialect of that language, for, situated where it is, it represents Western Hindi merging into Panjabi (Braj Bhasha being admittedly the standard of the language), but to say that it is a mongrel tongue thrown together in the market is to reverse the order of events. It was the natural language of the people in the neighbourhood of Delhi, who formed the bulk of those who resorted to the bazaar, and hence it became the bazaar language. From here it became the lingua franca of the Mogul camp and was carried everywhere in India by the lieutenants of the empire. It has several recognized varieties, amongst which we may mention Dakhini, Urdu, Rekhta and Hindi. Dakhini or " southern," is the form current in the south of India, and was the first to be employed for literature. It contains many archaic expressions now extinct in the standard dialect. Urdu, or Urdu zabdn, " the language of the camp," is the name usually employed for Hindostani by natives, and is now the standard form of speech used by Mussulmans. All the early Hindostani literature was in poetry, and this literary form of speech was named " Rekhta," or " scattered," from the way in which words borrowed from Persian were " scattered " through it. The name is now reserved for the dialect used in poetry, Urdu being the dialect of prose and of conversation. The introduction of these borrowed words, which has been carried to even a greater extent in Urdu, was facilitated by the facts that the latter was by origin a " camp " language, and that Persian was the official language of the Mogul court. In this way Persian (and, with Persian, Arabic) words came into current use, and, though the language remained Indo-Aryan in its grammar and essential characteristics, it soon became un= intelligible to any one who had not at least a moderate acquaintance with the vocabulary of Iran. This extreme Persianization of Urdu was due rather to Hindu than to Persian influence. Although Urdu literature was Mussulman in its origin, the Persian element was first introduced in excess by the pliant Hindu officials employed in the Mogul administration, and acquainted with Persian, rather than by Persians and Persianized Moguls, who for many centuries used only their own languages for literary purposes.2 Prose Urdu literature took its 2 Sir C. J. Lyall, op. cit. p, 9. origin in the English occupation of India and the need for text- element, indeed, we do find not a few instances in which nouns books for the college of Fort William. It has had a prosperous career since the commencement of the 19th century, but some writers, especially those of Lucknow, have so overloaded it with Persian and Arabic that little of the original Indo-Aryan character remains, except, perhaps, an occasional pronoun or auxiliary verb. The Hindi form of Hindostani was invented simultaneously with Urdu prose by the teachers at Fort William. It was intended to be a Hindostani for the use of Hindus, and was derived from Urdu by ejecting all words of Persian or Arabic birth, and substituting for them words either borrowed from Sanskrit (tatsamas) or derived from the old primary Prakrit (tadbhavas) (see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES). Owing to the popularity of the first book written in it, and to its supplying the need for a lingua franca which could be used by the most patriotic Hindus without offending their religious prejudices, it became widely adopted, and is now the recognized vehicle for writing prose by those inhabitants of northern India who do not employ Urdu. This Hindi, which is an altogether artificial product of the English, is hardly ever used for poetry. For this the indigenous dialects (usually Awadhi or Braj Bhasha) are nearly always employed by Hindus. Urdu, on the other hand, having had a natural growth, has a vigorous poetical literature. Modern Hindi prose is often disfigured by that too free borrowing of Sanskrit words instead of using home-born tadbhavas, which has been the ruin of Bengali, and it is rapidly becoming a Hindu counterpart of the Persianized Urdu, neither of which is intelligible except to persons of high education. Not only has Urdu adopted a Persian vocabulary, but even a few peculiarities of Persian construction, such as reversing the positions of the governing and the governed word (e.g. bap 'nerd for mera bap), or of the adjective and the substantive it qualifies, or such as the use of Persian phrases with the pre-position ba instead of the native postposition of the ablative case (e.g. ba-khushi for khushi-se, or ba-hukm sark(ir-ke instead of sarkdr-ke hukm-se) are to be met with in many writings; and these, perhaps, combined with the too free indulgence on the part of some authors in the use of high-flown and pedantic Persian and Arabic words in place of common and yet chaste Indian words, and the general use of the Persian instead of the Nagari character, have induced some to regard Hindostani or Urdu as a language distinct from Hindi. But such a view betrays a radical misunderstanding of the whole question. We must define Urdu as the Persianized Hindostani of educated Mussulmans, while Hindi is the Sanskritized Hindostani of educated Hindus. As for the written character, Urdu, from the number of Persian words which it contains, can only be written conveniently in the Persian character, while Hindi, for a parallel reason, can only be written in the Nagari or one of its related alphabets (see SANSKRIT). On the other hand, " Hindostani " implies the great lingua franca of India, capable of being written in either character, and, without purism, avoiding the excessive use of either Persian or Sanskrit words when employed for literature. It is easy to write this Hindostani, for it has an opulent vocabulary of tadbhava words understood everywhere by both Mussulmans and Hindus. While " Hindostani," " Urdu " and " Hindi " are thus names of dialects, it should be remembered that the terms " Western Hindi " and " Eastern Hindi " connote, not dialects, but languages. The epoch of Akbar, which first saw a regular revenue system established, with toleration and the free use of their religion to the Hindus, was, there can be little doubt, the period of the formation of the language. But its final consolidation did not take place till the reign of Shah Jahan. After the date of this monarch the changes are comparatively immaterial until we come to the time when European sources began to mingle with those of the East. Of the contributions from these sources there is little. to say. Like the greater part of those from Arabic and Persian, they are chiefly nouns, and may be regarded rather as excrescences which have sprung up casually and have attached themselves to the original trunk than as ingredients duly incorporated in the body. In the case of the Persian and Arabic ' This and the preceding paragraph are partly taken from Ms. Platts's article in vol. xi. of the 9th edition of this encyclopaedia. have been furnished with a Hindi termination, e.g. Maridna, badalna, guzarna, daghna, bakhshna, kaminapan, &c.; but the European element cannot be said to have at all woven itself into the grammar of the language. It consists, as has been observed, solely of nouns, principally substantive nouns, which on their admission into the language are spelt phonetically, or according to the corrupt pronunciation they receive in the mouths of the natives, and are declined like the indigenous nouns by means of the usual postpositions or case-affixes. A few examples will suffice. The Portuguese, the first in order of seniority, contributes a few words, as kamara or kamra (camera), a room; martol (martello), a hammer; nilam (leilao), an auction, &c. &c. Of French and Dutch influence scarcely a trace exists. English has contributed a number of words, some of which have even found a place in the literature of the language; e.g. kamishanar (commissioner); jaj (judge); daktar (doctor); daktari, " the science of medicine " or " the profession of physicians "; inspektar (inspector); istant (assistant); sosayati (society); apil (appeal); apil karna, " to appeal "; dikri or digri (decree); tligri (degree); inc (inch); fact (foot); and many more, are now words commonly used. Some borrowed words are distorted into the shape of genuine Hindostani words familiar to the speakers; e.g. the English railway term " signal " has become sikandar, the native name for Alexander the Great, and " signal-man " is sikandar-man, or " the pride of Alexander." How far the free use of Anglicisms will be adopted as the language progresses is a question upon which it would be hazardous to pronounce an opinion, but of late years it has greatly increased in the language of the educated, especially in the case of technical terms. A native veterinary surgeon once said to the present writer, " kutte-ka saliva bahut antiseptic hai " for " a dog's saliva is very antiseptic," and this is not an extravagant example.' The vocabulary of Panjabi and Eastern Hindi is very similar to that of Western Hindi. Panjabi has no literature to speak of and is free from the burden of words borrowed from Persian or Sanskrit, only the commonest and simplest of such being found in it. Its vocabulary is thus almost entirely tadbhava, and, while capable of expressing all ideas, it has a charming rustic flavour, like the Lowland Scotch of Burns, indicative of the national character of the sturdy peasantry that employs it. Eastern Hindi is very like Panjabi in this respect, but for a different reason. In it were written the works of Tulsi Das, one of the greatest writers that India has produced, and his influence on the language has been as great as that of Shakespeare on English. The peasantry are continually quoting him without knowing it, and his style, simple and yet vigorous, thoroughly Indian and yet free from purism, has set a model which is everywhere followed except in the large towns where Urdu or Sanskritized Hindi prevails. Eastern Hindi is written in the Nagari alphabet, or in the current character related to it called " Kaithi " (see BIHARI). The indigenous alphabet of the Punjab is called Landa or " clipped." It is related to Nagari, but is hardly legible to any one except the original writer, and sometimes not even to him. To remedy this defect an improved form of the alphabet was devised in the 16th century by Angad, the fifth Sikh Guru, for the purpose of recording the Sikh scriptures. It was named Gurmukhi, " proceeding from the mouth of the Guru," and is now generally used for writing the language. Grammar.—In the following account we use these contractions: Skr. =Sanskrit; Pr.= Prakrit ; Ap. = Apabhram§a ; W.H. raa. Western Hindi; E.H. =Eastern Hindi; H. =Hindostani; Br. = Braj Bhasha; P. =Panjabi. (P,) Phonetics.—The phonetic system of all three languages is nearly the same as that of the Apabhramsas from which they are derived. With a few exceptions, to be noted below, the letters of the alphabets of the three languages are the same as in Sanskrit. Panjabi, and the western dialects of Western Hindi, have preserved the old Vedic cerebral I. There is a tendency for concurrent vowels to run into each other, and for the semi-vowels y and v to become vowels. Thus, Skr. carmakaras, Ap. cammaaru, a leather-worker, wife of a caudhri or head man; mehtrani, the wife of a sweeper (Pres. mehtar, a sweeper). With these exceptions weak forms rarely have any terminations distinctive of gender.' The synthetic declension of Sanskrit and Prakrit has disappeared. We see it in the actual stage of disappearance in Apabhrarhsa (see PRAKRIT), in which the case terminations had become worn down to -hu, -ho, -hi, -hi and.-ha, of which -hi and -hi were employed for several cases, both singular and plural. There was also a marked tendency for these terminations to be confused, and in the earliest stages of the modern vernaculars we find -hi freely employed for any oblique case of the singular, and -hi for any oblique case of the plural, but more especially for the genitive and the locative. In the case of modern weak nouns these terminations have disappeared altogether in W.H. and P. except in sporadic forms of the locative such as gawe (for ghaahi), in the village. In E.H. they are still heard as the termination of a form which can stand for any oblique case, and is called the " oblique form " or the " oblique case." Thus, from ghar, a house (a weak noun), we have W.H. and P. oblique form ghar, E.H. gharahi, ghare or ghar. In the plural, the oblique form is sometimes founded on the Ap. terminations -ha and -hu, and sometimes on the Skr. termination of the genitive plural -anam (Pr. -aria, -anham), as in P. ghara, W.H. gharaii, gharb, gharani, E.H. gharan. In the case of masculine weak forms, the plural nominative has . dropped the old termination, except in E.H., where it has adopted. the oblique plural form for this case also, thus gharan. The nominative plural of feminine weak forms follows the example of the masculine in E.H. In P. it also takes the oblique plural form, while in W.H. it takes the old singular oblique form in saki, which it weakens to ai or (H.) e; thus bat (fern.), a word, nom. plur. E.H. bat-an, P. bat-a, W.H. batai or (H.) bate. Strong masculine bases in Ap. ended in -a-a (nom. 'a-u); thus ghoda-a- (nom. ghoija-u), and adding -hi we get ghoda-a-hi, which becomes contracted ghotlaha and finally to ghore. The nominative plural is the same as the oblique singular, except in E.H. where it follows the oblique plural. The oblique plural of all closely follows in principle the weak forms. Feminine strong forms in Ap. ended in -i-a, contracted to i in the modern languages. Except in E.H. the -hi of the original oblique form singular disappears, so that we have E.H. ghorihi or ghori, others only ghori. The nominative plural of feminine strong forms exhibits some irregularities. In E.H., as usual, it follows the plural oblique forms. In W.H. (except Hindostani) it simply nasalizes the oblique form singular (i.e. adds -hi instead of -hi), as in ghOri. P. and H. adopt the oblique long form for the plural and nasalize it, thus, P. ghoria, H. gho,°iyb. The oblique plurals call for no further remarks. We thus get the following summary, illustrating the way in which these nominative and oblique forms are made. becomes H. camar; Skr. rajani, Ap. ra(y)ani, H. rain, night; Skr. dhavalakas, Ap. dhavalau, H. dhaula, white. Sometimes the semi-vowel is retained, as in Skr. kataras, Ap. ka(y)aru, H. kayar, a coward. Almost the only compound consonants which survived in the Pr. stage were double letters, and in W.H. and E.H. these are usually simplified, the preceding vowel being lengthened and sometimes nasalized, in compensation. P., on the other hand, prefers to retain the double consonant. Thus, Skr. karma, Ap. kammu, W.H. and E.H. Wm, but P. kamm, a work; Skr. satyas, Ap. saccu, W.H. and E.H. sac, but P. sacc, true (I-I., being the W.H. dialect which lies nearest to P., often follows that language, and in this instance has sacc, usually written sac); Skr. hastas, Ap. hatthu, \W.H. and E.H. hath, but P. hatth, a hand. The nasalization of vowels is very frequent in all three languages, and is here represented by the sign -- over the vowel. Sometimes it is compensatory, as in she, but it often represents an original m, as in kawal from Skr. kamalas, a lotus. Final short vowels quiesce in prose pronunciation, and are usually not written in transliteration; thus the final_a, or u has been lost in all the examples given above, and other tatsama examples are Skr. mati- which becomes mat, mind, and Skr. vastu-, which be-comes bast, a thing. In all poetry, however (except -in- the Urdu poetry formed on Persian models, and under the rules of Persian prosody), they reappear and are necessary for the scansion. In tadblzava words an original long vowel in any syllable earlier than the penultimate is shortened. In P. and H. when the long vowel is e or o it is shortened to i or u respectively, but in other W.H. dialects and in E.H. it is shortened to e or o; thus, befi, daughter, long form H. bitiya, E.H. betiya; ghori, mare, long form H. ghuriya, E.H. ghoriya. The short vowels e and o are very rare in P. and H., but are not uncommon (though ignored by most grammars) in E.H. and the other W.H. dialects. A medial d is pronounced as a strongly burred cerebral e, and is then written as shown, with a supposited dot. All these changes and various contractions of Prakrit syllables have caused considerable variations in the forms of words, but generally not so as to obscure the origin. (13) Declension.—The nominative form of a tadbhava word is de-rived from the nominative form in Sanskrit and Prakrit, but tatsama words are usually borrowed in the form of the Skr. crude base; thus, Skr. hatpin-, nom. hash, Ap. nom. hatthi, H. hathi, an elephant; Skr. base mati-, nom. matis, H. (tatsama) mati, or, with elision of the final short vowel, mat. Some tatsamas are, however, borrowed in the nominative form, as in Skr. dhanin-, nom. dhani, H. dhani, a rich man. As another example of a tadbhava word, we may take the Skr. nom. ghotas, Ap. ghorlu, H. gltor, a horse. Here again the final short vowel has been elided, but in old poetry we should find ghoru, and corresponding forms in u are occasionally met with at the present day. In the article PRAKRIT attention is drawn to the frequent pleonastic suffixes, especially -ka- (fem.-(i)ka). With such a suffix we have the Skr. ghofa-kas, Ap. ghoda-u, Western Hindi ghorau, or in P. and H. (which is the W.H. dialect nearest in locality to P.) ghora, a horse; Skr. ghoti-ka, Ap. ghodi-a, W.H. and P. ghodi, a mare. Such modern forms made with one pleonastic suffix are called " strong forms," while those made without it are called " weak forms." All strong forms end in au (or a) in the masculine, and in i in the feminine, whereas, in Skr., and hence in tatsamas, both a and i are generally typical of feminine words, though sometimes employed for the masculine. It is shown in the article PRAKRIT that these pleonastic suffixes can be doubled, or even trebled, and in this way we have a new series of tadbhava forms. Let us take the imaginary Skr. *ghats-ka-kas with a double suffix. From this we have the Ap. ghoda-a-u, and modern ghorawa (with euphonic w inserted), a horse. Similarly for the feminine we have Skr. *ghori-ka-ka, Ap. ghodi-a-a, modern ghoriya (with euphonic y inserted), a mare. Such forms, made with two suffixes, are called " long forms," and are heard in familiar conversation, the feminine also serving as diminutives, There is a further stage, built upon three suffixes, and called the " redundant form," which is mainly used by the vulgar. As a rule masculine long forms end in -mud, -iya or -ua, and feminines in -iya, although the matter is complicated by the occasional use of pleonastic suffixes other than the -ka- which we have taken for our example, and is the most common. Strong forms are rarely met with in E.H., but on the other hand long forms are more common in that language. There are a few feminine terminations of weak nouns which may be noted. These are -ini, -in, -an, -ni (Skr. -ini, Pr. -ini) ; and -ani, -aril, -din (Skr. -ani, Pr. -ari). These are found not only in words derived from Prakrit, but are added to Persian and even Arabic words; thus, hathini, hathni, hatpin (Skr. hastini, Pr. hatthini), a she-elephant; sunarin, sunaran, a female goldsmith (sonar); shorni, a tigress (Persian shier, a tiger); Na,'iban, a proper name (Arabic nasib); panditani, time wife of a pandit; caudhrain,the use of We have seen that the oblique form is the resultant of a general melting down of all the oblique cases of Sanskrit and Prakrit, anti that in consequence it can be used for any oblique case. It is obvious that if it were so employed it would often give rise to great confusion. Hence, when it is necessary to show clearly what particular case is intended, it is usual to add defining particles corresponding to the English prepositions " of," " to," from," " by," &c., which, as in all Indo-Aryan languages they follow the main word, are here called " postpositions." The following are the postpositions commonly employed to form cases in our three languages:-- In some dialects of W.H. weak forms have masculines ending in u and corresponding feminines in i, but these are nowadays rarely met in the literary forms of speech. In old poetry they are common. In Braj Bhasha they have survived in the present participle. Panjabi. Hindostani. Braj Bhasha. Eastern Hindi. Weak Noun Masc. ghar ghar ghar ghar Nom. Sing. ghar ghar ghar ghar, gharahi Obl. Sing. . ghar ghar ghar gharan Nom. Plur. . . ghara ghat-6 gharau", gharani gharan Obl. Plur. . . ghora ghora ghorau ghora Strong Noun Masc. ghare 0th-tie ghore, ghorai ghora, ghore Nom. Sing. ghore ghore ghore gharan Obl. Sing. . . . ghoria ghorb ghorau`, ghorani gharan Nom. Plur. bat bat bat bat Obl. Plur. . bat bat bat bat Weak Noun Fern. bald bate oata"a batan Nom. Sing. bald bato batan, batani batan Obl. Sing. . ghorii ghori ghori ghori Nom. Plur. ghori ghori ghori ghori, ghorihi Obl. Plur. . ghoria ghoriyd ghori ghorin Strong Noun Fem. ghori$ ghoriya' ghoriyaa, ghorin Nom. Sing. 1 ghoriyani Obl. Sing. . Nom. Plur. Obl. Plur. Agent. Genitive. Dative. Ablative. Locative. Panjabi nai dd nu to vice Hindostani ne kit ko se me Braj Bhasha ne kau kau te, safe mar Eastern Hindi None ker, k ha se me, bikhe The agent case is the case which a noun takes when it is the subject of a transitive verb in a tense formed from the past participle. This participle is passive in origin, and must be construed passively. In the Prakrit stage the subject was in such cases put into the instrumental case (see PRAKRIT), as in the phrase aham terra matio, I by-him (was) struck, i.e. he struck me. In Eastern Hindi this is still the case, the old instrumental being represented by the oblique form without any suffix. The other two languages define the fact that the subject is in the instrumental (or agent) case by the addition of the postposition ne, &c., an old form employed elsewhere to define the dative. It is really the oblique form (by origin a locative) of na or no, which is employed in Gujarati (q.v.) for the genitive. As this suffix is never employed to indicate a material instrument but here only to indicate the agent or subject of a verb, it is called the postposition of the " agent " case. The genitive postpositions have an interesting origin. In Buddhist Sanskrit the words krtas, done, and krtyas, to be done, were added to a noun to form a kind of genitive. A synonym of krtyas was karyas. These three words were all adjectives, and agreed with the thing possessed in gender, number, and case; thus, mala-krte karat*, in the basket of the garland, literally, in the garland-made basket. In the various dialects of Apabhrarirsa Prakrit krtas became (strong form) kida-u or kia-u, krtyas became kicca-u, and karyas became kera-u or kajja-u, the initial k of which is liable to elision after a vowel. With the exception of Gujarati (and perhaps Marathi, q.v.) every Indo-Aryan language has genitive postpositions derived from one or other of these forms. Thus from (ki)da-u we have Panjabi da; from kia-u we have H. Wt, Br. kau, E.H. and Bihari k and Naipali ko; from (ki)cca-u we have perhaps Marathi ca; from kera-u, E.H. and Bihari her, kar, Bengali Oriya and Assamese -r, and Rajasthani -ro; while from (ka)jja-u we have the Sindhi jo. It will be observed that while k, her, kar, and r are weak forms, the rest are strong. As already stated, the genitive is an adjective. Bap means ' father," and bap-ka ghora is literally " the paternal horse." Hence (while the weak forms as usual do not change) these genitives agree with the thing possessed in gender, number, and case. Thus, bap-ka ghora, the horse of the father, but bap-ki ghori, the mare of the father, and bap-be ghore-ko, to the horse of the father, the lea being put into the oblique case masculine he, to agree with ghore, which is itself in an oblique case. The details of the agreement vary slightly in P. and W.H., and must be learnt from the grammars. The E.H. weak forms do not change in the modern language. Finally, in Prakrit it was customary to add these postpositions (kera-u, &c.) to the genitive, as in mama or mama kera-u, of me. Similarly these postpositions are, in the modern languages, added to the oblique form. The locative of the Sanskrit krtas, kite, was used in that language as a dative postposition, and it can be shown that all the dative postpositions given above are by origin old oblique forms of some genitive postposition. Thus H. ko, Br. kau, is a contraction of kahu, an old oblique form of kia-u. Similarly for the others. The origin of the ablative postpositions is obscure. To the present writer they all seem (like the Bengal ha'ite) to he connected with the verb substantive, but their derivation has not been definitely fixed. The locative postpositions me and mar are derived from the Skr. madhye, in, through majjhi, meal, and so on. The derivation of vice and bikhe is obscure. The pronouns closely follow the Prakrit originals. This will be evident from the preceding table of the first two personal pronouns compared with Apabhrarhsa. It will be observed that in most of the nominatives of the first person, and in the E.H. nominative of the second person, the old nominative has disappeared, and its place has been supplied by an oblique form, exactly as we have observed in the nominative plural of nouns substantive. The P. asi, tust, &c., are survivals from the old Lahnda (see Linguistic Boundaries, above). The genitives of these two pronouns are rarely used, possessive pronouns (in H. merd, my; hamara, our; tend, thy; tumhara, your) being employed instead. They can all (except P. asada, our; tusa End of Article: HINDOSTANI (properly Hindustani, of or belonging to Hindostan')

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article: