Table Of ContentT HE
INDO-ARYAN
L A N G U A G ES
Edited by
George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain
Routledge
I
Taylor & Francis Croup
LONDON AND NEW YORK
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First Published in 2003
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© 2003 George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain, selection and editorial matter;
the contributors, their own chapters
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ISBN 0-7007-1130-9
CONTENTS
Preface
General abbreviations
List of maps
List of figures
List of contributors
1 General introduction
George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain
2 Sociolinguistics of the Indo-Aryan languages
Dhanesh Jain
3 Writing systems of the Indo-Aryan languages
Richard Salomon
4 Sanskrit
George Cardona
5 Asokan Prakrit and Pali
Thomas Oberlies
6 Prakrits and Apabhramsa
Vit Bubenik
7 Hindi
Michael C, Shapiro
8 Urdu
Ruth Laila Schmidt
9 Bangla
Probal Dasgupta
10 Asamiya
G. C. Goswami and Jyotiprakash Tamuli
11 Oriya
Tapas S. Ray
12 Maithili
Ramawatar Yadav
13 Magahi
Sheela Verma
14 Bhojpuri
Manindra K. Verma
vi THE IN DO-A RYAN LANGUAGES
15 Nepali 538
Theodore Riccardi „ _
16 Panjabi 581
, Christopher Shackle
17 Sindhi 622
Lachman M Khubchandarti
18 Gujarati 659
George Cardona and Babu Suthar
19 Marathi 698
Rajeshwari Pandharipande
20 Konkani 729
Rocky V. Miranda
21 Sinhala 766
James W> Gair
22 Dardic 818
Elena Bashir
23 Kashmiri 895
Omkar N. Koul
General index 953
Language index 976
Index of cited passages 1056
PREFACE
»
In November 1996, Jonathan Price of Curzon Press approached George Cardona with a
request to edit a volume on the Indo-Aryan languages as one of a series of what he
called 'language-family descriptive books'. This would be an apt characterization of Sir
George Abraham Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India, the final volume of which
appeared in 1928, Despite the undisputed and well deserved high standing of Grierson's
survey, it is inevitably out of date, Jules Bloch's L'Indo-aryen du veda aux temps
modernes, translated into English by Alfred Master, is a magnificent overview of
historical changes in Indo-Aryan and of course involves summary characterizations of
its different stages, but this was not intended to supply descriptions of even the major
languages. Colin P. Masica's more recent work, The Indo-Aryan Languages (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1991), though of a very high quality, makes no pretence at
giving full descriptive statements about the languages* Moreover, new data have been
and continue to be made available, especially for Dardic, In view of all this, the time
appeared propitious for such a new enterprise. It seemed difficult, however, for a single
person to carry out the editorial work, especially since many of the contributions would
appropriately be by scholars in India. Dhanesh Jain agreed to serve as coeditor, and we
undertook the work.
It was decided that The Indo-Aryan Languages should include descriptions not only of
the major modern Indo-Aryan languages but also of Old Indo-Aryan and Middle Indo-
Aryan as well as a general introduction, thus ensuring a historical as well as a synchronic
perspective. In addition, chapters on the writing systems used for Indo-Aryan languages
and on aspects of the sociolinguistics of these languages were deemed desirable.
Originally, we envisioned also chapters on the typological characteristics and subgroupings
of modern Indo-Aryan languages. The scholar who was the obvious first choice to write on
these topics, however, declined our invitation and the second scholar who was invited also
declined, pleading that the data available and the research done to date would make a
contribution of his largely redundant in view of the fairly recent contributions on this topic
by Masica and Ramanujan. In addition, considerable work remains to be done before a
detailed picture of subgroups of modern Indo-Aryan languages is arrived at which could
possibly command consensus. Accordingly, we have had to do without the chapters
originally planned for and have made do by referring to recent work in this area (see
sections 1.3.2 and 1,4 of the general introduction in this volume).
As can be seen from the table of contents, the modern languages included in this
volume have been arranged as follows. Beginning with the major national languages -
Hindi, Urdu, Bangla - we proceed to languages reflecting broad typological divisions,
from east to west and southwest, ending with the isolate Sinhala and with Dardic,
devoting a separate chapter to Kashmiri. One feature which was imposed on us by
circumstance is that Indo-Aryan languages in the diaspora outside the subcontinent area
have not been dealt with separately, although we originally envisioned including a
chapter on Indo-Aryan languages in migration.
vii
viii THE IN DO-A RYAN LANGUAGES
The task of selecting and inviting contributors, although for the most part fairly
straightforward, was made difficult by one circumstance. Sad to say, it is hard to find
scholars to compose acceptable contemporary descriptions of certain languages,
especially relatively minor ones such as the languages of Rajasthan and PahadI
languages, This is all the more regrettable because the study of such languages could
yield important insights into questions of language migration and transitional areas,
Invitations were sent to select scholars in late August of 1997, and contributions were
to be in the hands of the editors by the end of 1998. Some of those we approached,
however, had to decline our invitation due to prior commitments or considerations of
age and health, two others withdrew after agreeing to contribute, and one contributor
withdrew because he could not agree to modify .a script found unacceptable.
Unfortunately, after these developments we could not find any one to compose a
chapter on Marwari or other languages of Rajasthan. On the other hand, Vit Bubenik
and Lachman Khubchandani graciously stepped in to supply chapters on later Prakrits
and Sindhi respectively, and Professor G. C. Goswami kindly agreed to serve as
coauthor of the chapter on Asamiya. After such matters were settled, the chapters and
contributors shown in the table of contents were made final. In addition, maps were
drawn up, We express our thanks to Elena Bashir for composing the map of Dardic and
Nuristani.
We are grateful to all the scholars who have contributed to this volume not only for
the care with which they prepared their chapters but also for their spirit of cooperation in
considering suggestions made by the editors. As editors, however, we felt we could not
impose on individual scholars our judgements of data with which they might not agree.
Nor could we require that they deal with their subjects all in the same manner, except for
a general style sheet which was agreed upon beforehand. Consequently, the reader will
notice considerable variation both in the scope of treatment - for example, with only
phonology and morphology treated in one chapter - and in the manner of treating and
presenting data.
k
The original intention was that this volume should appear late in the year 2000, and
most contributors were extremely cooperative, with the greater part of chapters in the
hands of the editors by the end of 1998. Due to the complications noted earlier, however,
some contributions could not reach us until mid-June of 2000. These. delays,
nevertheless, served a purpose, in that original contributors could modify their chapters
so as to make later editorial work easier. The complete edited set of contributions was
submitted to the publisher on 30 June 2000.
Contributors have made every effort possible to make their work up to' date,
including renewed fieldwork. Nevertheless, in view of the time at which contributions
were composed and submitted, authors could not take into consideration the recognition
of three new states: Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Uttaranchal. Obviously, materials
published after final submissions could not be included, so that this' book will
immediately be out of date in some respects. This is especially true with respect to the
ongoing efforts and discussions concerning the Indus Valley materials and the question
of the Indo-Aryan homeland (see general introduction, section 3). For example, recent
work on the Indus script (Natwar Jha and N. S. Rajaram, The Deciphered Indus Script:
Methodology, Readings, Interpretations, Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2000) and' on
evidence in the Rgveda concerning the history of Indo-Aryans (Shrikant Talageri,
Rigveda: A Historical Analysis, Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2000), as well as Michael
Witzel's even more recent article 'Autochthonous Aryans? The evidence from Old
Indian and Iranian texts' (Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 7.3 [May 25, 2001)
PREFACE ix
appeared too late to be taken into consideration in the general introduction. Nor has it
been possible to discuss the import of chariots with spoked wheels, already well known
in the Rgveda, a subject which recently has given rise to extended discussions in the
electronic discussion group Indology. Suffice it to say that, in our opinion, M.
Sparreboom's Chariots in the Veda (Memoirs of the Kern Institute No. 3, Leiden; E. J,
Brill, 1985) represents the most complete and judicious treatment of the available
literary evidence. Despite such inevitable omissions, we have reason to hope the present
volume will give readers a fair and well founded picture of the Indo-Aryan languages
and their background.
George Cardona, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Dhanesh Jain, Delhi
Postscript
We wish to thank the editorial staff of Ratna Sagar, Delhi, for their help in producing the
indexes.
GENERAL ABBREVIATIONS
Abbreviations are listed in upper case characters. They are used also in various formats:
all caps, small caps, lower case, for different purposes. These are clear from the contexts
in which authors have used the abbreviations, and it was thought unnecessary and
unwise to impose a single format for the entire volume.
IP first person
1PROX first proximal
2P second person
2PI second person intimate
2PN second person neutral
2PROX second proximal
3P third person
0 nominative/deleted noun phrase - Marathi
A actual
ABL ablative
ACC accusative
ACT active
ADC anaphoric deictic category
ADJ adjective
ADV adverb
ADV PTCPL adverbial participle
AG agent
AGN agentive
AGR agreement
AMC assertion marker clitic
ANIM animate
AOR aorist
APH anaphoric deictic category
ASP aspirated
AUG augment
AUX auxiliary
C consonant
CAUS causative
CL classifier
CLT clitic
COLL collective
COM1T comitative
. COMP complement
x
GENERAL ABBREVIATIONS xi
COMPR comparison
COMPV comparative
COMPRV PTCLE comparative particle
COMPZ complementizer
CON continuous
CONC concessive
COND/CONDIT conditional
CONJ conjunction
CONJT conjunctive
CONJT PTCPL conjunctive participle
CONT contingent
COR correlative
COR EQ correlative equative
CP conjunctive participle
COR MAR correlative marker
CV compound verb
DAT dative
DDC distal deictic category
DEF definite
DEM demonstrative
DIR direct (case)
DIST distal
DO direct object
DU dual
EMPHR emphasizer
EMPH(T) emphatic
EQ equative
ERG ergative
EXCL exclusive
EXH exhortative
F feminine
F future (in the abbreviation P/F)
FAM familiar
FOC focusing (clefting) form of verb
FOR formal
FUT future
G gender
GEN genitive
GER gerund
GERC gerciple
GERDV gerundive
HAB habitual
HI high
HON honorific
