Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/883

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
HER—HER

LANGUAGE.] HINDUS T A N I 843 The genitive plural hamdrd is probably from Prk. amha + karo, by elision of k-. The pronoun tu, "thou," = Prk. tumam, t^lam,-=S. tvam. A form tain, parallel to main, and similarly derived, is also in use. The oblique tujh is from the Prakrit tujjlia, one of the forms of the genitive. The sources from and the processes by which the remaining forms are obtained are precisely parallel to those employed in the pronoun of the first person. The pronouns of the third person are identical with the demon strative pronouns yah or yih, "this," and ivah or wuh, "that," of which the older forms are ill and uh. The origin of these forms has not yet been discovered. All that can be gathered respecting them is that they are probably connected with one or other of the Prakrit forms aam, idm, inam, im,kc. =S. ay am, m.,iyam, L,idam, n.,&c., and are to be referred to primitive bases i and a or u. The oblique forms of these pronouns, however, point clearly to the Prakrit geni tive, e.g. , is = Prk. assa, S. asj/a. The relative pronoun /o, "he who" = Prk. jo, base ja =S. yet. The other form in use, jaun, = Prk. jo-una ( = S. punah). The singular oblique form jis = Prk. jissa (the fern, base ji being used iu place of the masc. ja), =S. yasya. The oblique form of the plural, i.e., jin = Prk. jdnam (by weakening of the vowel), =S. ydnam. The correlative so ==Prk. so = S. sah. Its remaining forms may be made on the model of jo by substituting t for/. The interrogative pronoun has k for its typical letter, just as the relative has./, and is in all respects as uniform as the relative and correlative. Kaun, " who " = ko + v.na ( = S. punah) ; the oblique form Ms = Prk. gen. kassa (with change of base from masc. lea to fern, ki), = S. kasya. The indefinite pronoun kot, "some one," = Prk. kobi, = S ko + api.. "The oblique form k-isl shows the oblique of the inter rogative with the I, whose origin has been forgotten, so that it is regarded as a mere emphatic particle" (see Beanies, Comp. Gram.). Kuclili, " something " = Prk. kimchi = S. kimchit. The reflexive pronoun ap, " self " = Prk. appd, dpd, S. dtmd. Verbs and Tenses. The verbal stems are, generally speaking, derived from the Prakrit present tense of Sanskrit neuter verbs, or from the Prakrit passive past participle. In the formation of the tenses, as in the declension of nouns, the synthetical or inflexional system of the Prakrit and the Sanskrit has given place to the analytical. Still wrecks of the old inflexions remain. The tenses of the modern verb may be naturally classed under three heads (1) the simple tenses, whieh are the exact modern equivalents of corresponding tenses in the Prakrit verb, and in which traces of the old synthetic method still linger ; (2) tenses formed of a participle, either the imperfect or the perfect participle ; (3) tenses formed of a participle and an auxiliary verb. The tenses of the first class are two in number, the aorist (which corresponds to the present indicative of the old languages), and the imperative, which is derived from the Prakrit imperative. The terminations of the aorist are : Singular, 1. fin=Prk. ami =S. ami. 2. e =Prk. asi =S. asi. 3. e =Prk. adi, ai=S. ati. Plural. 1. i=Pik. Sma, ama=S. amah. 2. o =Prk. aha S. a-tha. 3. en=Prk. anti S. anti. The imperative closely resembles the aorist or old present. The second person sing, is the bare verbal stem, and the second person plur. is identical with that of the aorist. From the aorist the Hindustani and the Hindi form the simple future by the addition of gd ( = Prk. gad, gado, = S. gatah, perf . part, of the root gam, "to go"), e.g. , kahun-gd, "I will tell," &c. The termination gd (which is masc.) becomes gl for the feminine, and ge for the plural, after the analogy of nouns of the first declension. Of the tenses of the second class little need be said. The parti ciples (which like other vocables are derived from the Prakrit) are the imperfect and the perfect, or what are vulgarly termed the present and the past. An example of each will suffice to show the construction: wall boltd, "he says"; main bold, "I said"; wall boll, "she said " ; we bole, " they said." Such is the construction in the case of neuter and intransitive verbs. But if the verb be active transitive, the tenses formed of the perfect passive participle are passively constructed ; the place of the nominative is taken by the instrumental or case of the agent, and the participle inflects so as to agree with the object, if this be expressed, and appear in the form of the nominative ; but if the object is not expressed, or if when expressed it assumes the dative form, the participle is con structed impersonally and appears in the masc. sing, form; e.g., maih-ne kahd, " by me it was said," " I said "; us-ne chitthl likhl, "the letter was written by him," "he wrote the letter" ; rdjd-ne sherni-ko mdrd, "the king killed the tigress" ; lit. "as regards the tigress, it was killed by the king." This construction, as we have already remarked, is commonly employed in the Sanskrit. The tenses of the third class are formed by adding to the par ticiples already mentioned the various tenses of certain auxiliary verbs, as hond, "to be " ; jdnd, " to go " ; and the fragmentary forms hun (with its remaining persons) and tlid ; e.g., mainjdtdhun, "I am going " ; wall parhtl hai, " she is reading ; wall baithd tlid, "he was seated," "he was sitting"; we chale hohge, "they will have started." Of these auxiliaries hond (ha- = Prk. ho-, = S. bhu) and jdnd (jd = Prk. ja, = S. yd) need not detain us. Both verbs are in use in all their tenses in the modern languages, and the preceding remarks on the verbal forms and tenses apply equally to them. Jdnd is that which is employed to form the passive voice, e. g. , wait mdrdjdcgd, " he will be killed." It is also used for other purposes, such as intensifying a root to which it is attached, &c. The auxiliaries huh (with its other persons) and tlid, stand on a different footing. The former is derived from the present indicative of the root as, " to be," in the old languages : Singular. | Plural. 1. 7in=Prk. amhi=S. asmi. 1. #a/n=Prk. asma=S. smah. 2. /iai=Prk. asi =S. asi. 2. ho =Prk. attfia=S. stha. 3. Aaj=Prk. atthi = S. asti. 3. Aain=Prk. santi=S. santi.i The latter is derived from the Prakrit thio, = Sanskrit sthitah, the perfect participle of the root sthd, "to stand." Besides being used as auxiliaries, both are employed to express simple existence, as main huh, " I am," " it is I " ; wah hai, " he or it is " ; ivah tlid, " he was" ; icali till, " she was." (J. T. P. ) HINDUSTANI LITERATURE. Hindustani litera ture falls into two great divisions, of which, the first is comprehensively styled Hindi, the second Urdu. Both of these forms of speech are, in their application to literary pur poses, at first intruders upon the ground already occupied by the learned languages, Sanskrit and Persian. At no time during modern Indian history has Sanskrit altogether ceased to be used for composition by the class who regard culture and literature as their special heritage, although during the last two centuries it has much fallen from its former estate ; and Persian has been still less neglected by learned Muhammadans and their Hindu imitators in India. But there is this difference between them that, whereas Hindi has been raised to the dignity of a literary language chiefly by impulses of revolt against the monopoly of the Brahmans, Urdu has been cultivated with good will by authors who have themselves highly valued and dexterously used the polished Persian. Both, however, represent the popular side of the national culture, and in the present day they are almost in sole possession of the field. The sub ject may be conveniently divided as follows : 1. Early Hindi, of the period during which the language was being fashioned as a literary medium, represented by the old heroic poems of Rajputana and the literature of the Bhagats or Vaishnava reformers, and extending from about 1200 to 1570 A.D. 2. Middle Hindi, representing the best age of Hindi poetry, and reaching from about 1570 to 1750 A.D. 3. The rise and development of literary Urdu, beginning about the end of the 16th century and reaching its height during the 18th. 4. The modern period, marked by the growth of a prose literature in both dialects, and dating from the beginning of the present century. 1. Early Hindi literature has as yet been very insuffi ciently explored.- Chand s PritJnvirdj Rdsau is the only specimen of the heroic ballads of which any portion has been published, other ancient metrical chronicles of the same character being known to us only from the use made of them by such writers as Colonel Tod in his Annals of Rajasthan, and Major Pogson in his History of the Boondelas. Chand was the bard of Frith wiraj, the last Hindu king of Dehli, whose life and death he has related. He was himself a native of Lahore, which had for nearly 200 years (since 1023) been under Musalman domination at the time when the poem may be supposed to have been written. His language exhibits a considerable proportion of Persian words, but little of the distinctive features of what is now Panjabl. His work is probably, with the ~"i"Bean7es (Cornp. Gram~o. iii. p. 171, et seq.} thinks it difficult, if not impos sible, to derive these modern forms from the old ones given above, and would postulate the existence of a present tense of the root as conjugated after the bhu type, thus (sing.) 1. asiimi; 2. asasi; 3. asati: (plur.) 1. atSmah; 2. asatha; 3. asanti. The objection to this, however, is thi4 no such forms have

been found to exist.