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THE INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES ROUTLEDGE LANGUAGE FAMILY SERIES Each volume in this series contains an in-depth account of the members of some of the world’s most important language families. Written by experts in each language, these accessible accounts provide detailed linguistic analysis and description. The contents are carefully structured to cover the natural system of classification: phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis, semantics, dialectology, and sociolinguistics. Every volume contains extensive bibliographies for each language, a detailed index and tables, and maps and examples from the languages to demonstrate the linguistic features being described. The consistent format allows comparative study, not only between the languages in each volume, but also across all the volumes in the series. The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar Edited by Nikolaus Himmelmann & Sander Adelaar The Bantu Languages Edited by Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson The languages of the Caucasus Edited by Alice Harris The Celtic Languages Martin J.Ball & James Fife The Dravidian Languages Edited by Sanford B.Steever The Germanic Languages Edited by Ekkehard Konig & Johan van der Auwera The Indo-Aryan Languages Edited by George Cardona & Dhanesh K.Jain The Indo-European Languages Edited by Paolo Ramat & Anna Giacalone Ramat The Iranian Languages Edited by Gernot Windfuhr The Khoesan languages Edited by Raïner Vossen The Mongolic Languages Edited by Juha Janhunan The Oceanic Languages Edited by John Lynch, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley The Romance Languages Edited by Martin Harris & Nigel Vincent The Semitic Languages Edited by Robert Hetzron The Sino-Tibetan Languages Edited by Graham Thurgood & Randy J.Lapolla The Slavonic Languages Bernard Comrie & Greville G.Corbett The Turkic Languages Edited by Eva Csato & Lars Johanson The Uralic Languages Edited by Daniel Abondolo THE INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGES Edited by George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain First published 2003 by Routledge Published 2014 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2003, 2007 George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain, selection and editorial matter; the contributors, their own chapters All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 13: 978-0-700-71130-7 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-77294-5 (pbk) CONTENTS Preface viii Preface to the paperback edition xi General abbreviations xv List of maps xxiii List of figures xxiv List of contributors xxv 1 General introduction 1 George Cardona and Dhanesh Jain 2 Sociolinguistics of the Indo-Aryan languages 52 Dhanesh Jain 3 Writing systems of the Indo-Aryan languages 75 Richard Salomon 4 Sanskrit 115 George Cardona 5 Aśokan Prakrit and Pāli 179 Thomas Oberlies 6 Prākrits and 225 Vit Bubenik 7 Hindi 276 Michael C.Shapiro 8 Urdu 315 Ruth Laila Schmidt 9 Bangla 386 Probal Dasgupta 10 Asamiya 429 G.C.Goswami and Jyotiprakash Tamuli 11 Oriya 485 Tapas S.Ray 12 Maithili 523 Ramawatar Yadav 13 Magahi 547 Sheela Verma 14 Bhojpuri 566 Manindra K.Verma 15 Nepali 590 Theodore Riccardi 16 Panjabi 637 Christopher Shackle 17 Sindhi 683 Lachman M.Khubchandani 18 Gujarati 722 George Cardona and Babu Suthar 19 Marathi 766 Rajeshwari Pandharipande 20 Konkani 803 Rocky V.Miranda 21 Sinhala 847 James W.Gair 22 Dardic 905 Elena Bashir 23 Kashmiri 991 Omkar N.Koul General index 1052 Language index 1109 Index of cited passages 1299 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. 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 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. 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

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