to consider that the final consonant has been the deciding element in the matter, and lay down, or attempt to lay down, rules for each letter; as, for instance, that final is feminine and final masculine, evidently not being aware that neither nor have anything to do with the matter, but that the words in which those letters now appear as finals are derived from Skr. words ending in â, which has been absorbed, leaving the preceding consonant, no matter what it be, as a final; and the cause of these words being feminine is not any peculiarity inherent in the consonant, which has now, as it were by accident, become final, but results from the words having been feminine in Sanskrit and Prakrit. For the rule holds good for the modern Aryan group, as well as for their Romance and Teutonic cousins, that the gender of the ancient mother speech is faithfully preserved, in spite of all changes. In German much of the difficulty which foreigners experience in determining the gender of nouns would be removed were they better acquainted with the forms of the Old High German. "Gender was, in the older language, easily recognizable from the form and method of declension of the word itself. When once we know the full Old German inflexion of a substantive, we can have no further doubt as to its gender. In our modern speech, however, these marks of gender have to a great extent been worn away and obliterated. Compare, for instance, 'der Dorn' (masc.) and 'das Horn' (neuter), 'der Wind' and 'das Land,' 'der Vogel' and 'die Nadel,' etc., with the Gothic equivalents thaurn-us and haurn, vind-s and land, fugl-s and nethla, der Same' (or Samen), 'die Staude' and 'das Ende,' with the Old-HighGerman samo, studa, enti." In the same way in the modern Aryan languages, our doubt as to why dânt should be masculine and bat feminine is removed when we look back to the Sanskrit dant-as and vârtâ respectively. It would be well if those who 1 Heyse, Lehrbuch d. Deutschen Sprache, vol. i. p. 443. Compare also the forms of the Gothic declensions at p. 96 of the same volume. write our Indian Dictionaries for us would put the original word in a bracket for our guidance. Unfortunately they do not usually know the original themselves. My list, which is only a specimen, and by no means exhaustive, is as follows; it consists of Skr. feminines in à, irrespective of the pratyayas by which they are considered by native grammarians to be formed: Skr. ऊर्णी “wool,” H. ऊन, P. उन्न, S. उन, but G. ऊन isn. Skr. खट्टा “ bedstead,” H. खट, खाट, P. खट्ट, S. खट, G. M. खाट. Skr. गोधा “iguana,” H. गोह, P. S. id., G. घो. Skr. छाया “shadow,” H. छां, छांव, छांह, छात्र, P. छां, छाउं, S. छांव, छi, G. छांय. Skr. जंघा " leg,” H. जांघ, G. Mid., P. जंघ, S. जंघ. Skr. जिह्वा “tongue, ” H. जीभ, P. G. M.id., S. जिभ. Skr. द्राक्षा “vine," H. दाख, P. id., S. डाख . Skr. निद्रा “sleep,” H. नींद, P. id., S. निंड़, G. नींद, M. नीद, नीज. Skr. पीडा “pain,” H. पीड, Old H. पीर, P. पीड, also and in the rest पीडा. Old Hindi confounds and T; thus Chand writes: को जानि मात बिंझनी पीर ॥ सौति कौ साल सालै सरीर ॥ “Who knows, O mother! the pain of a barren woman ? The dart of a rival wife pierces the body!"-Pr. R. i. 178. Skr. माता “mother, ” Old H. मात, as in the line above quoted, ordinarily मा, माई and माउ. Skr. माला " garland,” M. and G. माळ. Skr. रक्षा “ashes," H. राख, P. G. Mid., S. रख Skr. रण्डा “widow,” H. रांड, G. M. O. Bid., P. रंड, S. रन (see Vol. I. p. 299). Skr. रेखा “streak,” रेख, P. Gid., M. रेघ, रेह. The Sindhi means the first streak of down on the cheeks of a young man, and may be derived from sense that the Persian and Urdu poets use T, in the same "line" in the sense of whiskers or moustache. Thus, to take an illustration from a popular Indian poet, Wali says: ڈرتا هي خط چور كون هي خوف چوکیدار کا "The moustache fears the mirror, As the thief fears the watchman." " Skr. "shame," H., G. M. O. and Old-B. id., P., S. The form is also in common use. also लाथ. "kick," H., B. O. M. G. id., P. CA, S. JA, B. Skr. "rein," H., and so in all. उलटी जु राज पृथिराज बाग ॥ थकि सुर गिग्गन धर धसत नाग ॥ "When Prithiraj the King turned rein, The heavens stood still, the earth trembled, and the earth-serpent." -Chand, Pr. R. xx. 33. وو (सुर is for स्वर “ heaven, ” गिग्गन = गगन " sky,” धर= धरा “ earth,” धसत = ध्वंशत् " falling to pieces,” and नाग is the serpent Sheshnâga, who supports the earth on his head; or we may take and to be separated parts of a compound "the earth-serpent.") 1 Skr. Skr. f Skr. "speech," H. aa, P. G. id., M. also, but rare, S. ifa. “bed,” Old-H. ~, H. ¤, P. id., G. M. ζ. Page 8, line 13, of M. Garcin de Tassy's beautiful edition of Wali (Paris, 1834). VOL. II. 4 Skr. “hall," H. A, P. H, G. M. I, B. O. (vulgarly) शाल. Skr. शिला “ stone,” H. सिल, P. सिळ, S. सिर, M. शीळ, B. शिल, 0. शिळ. This word in the modern languages is generally restricted to the meaning of a peculiarly shaped flat stone on which spices are ground for the native dish "curry." In Sindhi, however, it means a "brick." Skr. शुण्डा “elephant's trunk,” H. सूंड, P. सुंड, S. सूंढि, M. शुंडा, G. B. O. शुंड, G. also सुंड and सुंढ. Skr. संध्या “evening,” H. सांझ, P. संझ, S. सांझी, संझा, but also संझो, G. सांज, M.id., B. 0. सांझ . Nearly all of the words in the above list retain the feminine gender throughout all the languages; but this point will be more fully dwelt on in the next chapter (see § 36). Besides words of the class given above, there is an extremely numerous class consisting of abstract nouns, which may be formed at will from infinitives of all verbs by dropping the final syllable, and they then convey the sense inherent in the verb. Thus in Hindi "to beat," and "a beati “he beat me a ing." Thus they say great beating." It would not be correct to say that these abstract nouns were derived from the infinitive; on the contrary, in respect of formation, they stand on the same level with it. The original Sanskrit root, for instance, forms two nouns; by adding () it forms the abstract “pain," and by adding युच् or ल्युट् (अन) it forms पीडनं “ the act of paining"; from the former we get "pain," from the latter, "to pain," infinitive of the verb.' 1 See § 9, (1), (8), feminines in ak. Some few of the commoner pairs of words may here be set "a stopping," "to be stopped." It is these abstract nouns which are used with a long list of auxiliary verbs to make the compound verbs so common in all the seven languages, as मार डालना “ to kill,” चढ बैठना "to mount upon a seat," and the like. In Sindhi all the verbs are capable of being used as abstract nouns by the rejection of the final syllable of the infinitive: as in these instances from Trumpp.1 In Marathi also there are numerous abstract nouns of this sort, with which may be joined the corresponding words in Gujarati. M. लाग “adherence,” लागणें “ to adhere.” G. लाग and लागवुं. Instances may also be found in quantities in the other languages, but it is unnecessary here to adduce them. The formation of these abstract nouns in some cases necessitates the lengthening of the radical vowel of the root, and in cases where that vowel is i or u, it is changed into the guna vowel. 1 Sindhi Grammar, p. 46. |