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COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR
OF THE
MODERN ARYAN LANGUAGES
OF INDIA.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
CONTENTS.—§ 1. Sanskrit the Parent of the Seven Languages.—§ 2. First Exception, Elements Aryan, but not Sanskritic—the Prakrits.—§ 3. Second exception, Elements neither Sanskritic nor Aryan.—§ 4. Elementary Division of the Seven Languages. Tatsama, Tadbhava, Desaja.—§ 5. Early and Late Tadbhavas.—§ 6. The Accent.—§ 7. Absence of Data during Nine Centures.—§ 8. Proportion of Words of the Three Classes in each Language.—§ 9. Digression on the Hindi.—§ 10. Proportion of Words Resumed.—§ 11. Quantity of Arabic and Persian Words in each Language.—§§ 12-14. Inflectional Systems of the Seven Languages,—Question of non-Aryan Influence.—§ 15. Stages of Development in the Present Day.—§ 16. The Character.—§ 17. Panjabi.—§ 18. Bengali.—§ 19. Oṛiya.—§ 20. Pronunciation, अ.—§ 21. The Other Vowels.—§ 22. Consonants.—§ 23. Semi-Vowels.—§ 24. Sibilants.—§ 25. Nasals.—§ 26. Compound Consonants—Peculiarities of Bengali.—§ 27. Peculiarities of Sindhi.—§ 28. Literature.—§ 29. Dialects.—§ 30. General Remarks on Chronological Sequence of the Various Languages, and their Probable Future Fate.—Table of Indian Alphabets.
§ 1. On analyzing the vocabulary of the seven languages which form the subject of this work, we observe at the outset that a large number of words are common to them all. In all, with slight modifications, ho means be; kar, do; â, come; jâ, go; khâ, eat; pî, drink; mar, die; mâr, strike; sun, hear; dekh, see; and among nouns a still greater number is found
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