The Indo-Aryan Languages

1333 Pages·2003·14.574 MB·

by  George Cardona, Dhanesh Jain (eds.)

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