Marathi

General Character of the Language.

The Prakrits fall into two well-defined groups, an Inner, Saurageni, and its con nected dialects on the one hand, and an Outer, Maharastri, Ard hamagadhi., and Magadhi with their connected dialects on the other. These two groups differed in their phonetic laws, in their systems of declension and conjugation, in vocabulary, and in general character. Meaningless suffixes such as -alla, -ulla, etc. can be added, almost ad libitum to any noun, adjective or particle in Maharastri and Ardhamagadhi, but are hardly ever met in aurageni. These give rise to numerous secondary forms of words, which give a distinct flavour to the whole language.

Vocabulary.

MaharaWi Prakrit, the most independent of the Outer languages, was distinguished by the large proportion of deiyas (see INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES) found in its .vocabulary, and the same is consequently the case in Marathi, although the proportion of tatsamas to tadbhavas in the language is fairly high. The proportion of Persian and, through Persian, of Arabic words in the Marathi vocabulary is comparatively low.

Phonetics.

In the standard dialect the vowels are the same as in Sanskrit, but r and 1 only appear in words borrowed direct ly from that language (tatsamas). Final short vowels (a, i and u) have all disappeared in prose pronunciation, except in a few local dialects, and final i and u are not even written. After an accented syllable a medial a is pronounced very lightly, even when the accent is not the main accent of the word. Almost the only compound consonants which survived in the Prakrit stage were double letters, and in M. these are usually simplified, the pre ceding vowel being lengthened in compensation. It is not usual to lengthen the vowel in compensation in Konkani, which appears to contain many relics of the old Prakrit (Saurast.ri) spoken in the Gujarat country before the invasion from the Midland.

On the whole, the consonantal system is much the same as in other Indian languages. Nasalization of long vowels is very common, especially in Konkani. The palatals are pronounced as in Skr. in words borrowed from that language or from Hindu stani, and also in Marathi tadbhavas before i, e or y. In other cases they are pronounced ts, tsh, dz, dzh respectively. There are two s-sounds in the standard dialect which are very similarly dis tinguished, f, pronounced like an English sh, is used before i, or i and s, as in English "sin," elsewhere. In the dialects s is

practically the only sibilant used, and that is changed by the vulgar speakers of Konkani to h (again as in north-western India). Aspirated letters show a tendency to lose their aspiration, espe cially in Konkani. Generally speaking Marathi closely follows Maharastri when that differs from the Prakrits of other parts of India. There is similarly both in Marathi and Maharastri a laxness in distinguishing between cerebral and dental letters.

Declension.—Marathi retains the three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter. In Marathi the neuter denotes both inani mate things and animate beings when both sexes are included, or when the sex is left undecided. In the Konkani the neuter gender is further employed to denote females below the age of puberty. Numerous masculine and feminine words, however, denote in animate objects. The rules for distinguishing the gender of such nouns must be learned from the grammars. For the most part, but not always, words follow the genders of the Skt. originals. Strong bases in a—and these do not include tatsamas—are mas culine, and the corresponding feminine and neuter words end in i and e respectively. Sex is usually distinguished by the use of the masculine and feminine genders, and large and powerful inani mate objects are generally masculine, while small, delicate things are generally feminine. In the case of some animals sex is dis tinguished by the use of different words.

A pleonastic suffix of –(a)ka–(masc. and neut.), could in Sanskrit be added to any noun, whatever the termination of the base might be. Modern forms made with this pleonastic suffix, and ending in a, i ore are called "strong forms," while all those made without it are called "weak forms." As a rule the fact that a noun is in a weak or strong form does not affect its meaning, but sometimes the use of a masculine strong form indicates clumsiness or hugeness. Other pleonastic suffixes are employed in Marathi, usually with specific senses. Thus the suffix–illa generally forms adjectives, while -da-ka implies contempt.

The synthetic declension of Sanskrit and Prakrit has been pre served in Marathi more completely than in any other Indo-Aryan language. In the formation of the plural the Prakrit declensions are very closely followed by Marathi.