The
Middle Indo-Aryan languages are the early medieval dialects of the
Indo-Aryan languagesThe Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
, the descendants of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects such as
VedicVedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language...
& Classical Sanskrit, and the predecessors of the late medieval languages such as
ApabhramshaApabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition between the late...
or
AbahattaAbahatta, from Prakrit abasatta and ultimately from Sanskrit apaśabda "meaningless sound", is a stage in the evolution of the Eastern group of Indo-Aryan languages such as Bangla, Maithili, Oriya. It is also called Apabhramsa Avahatta, Apabhramsha Abahatta or Purvi Apabhramsa. Abahatta is...
, which eventually evolved into the contemporary Indo-Aryan languages, including
HindustaniHindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
(Hindi-Urdu),
OriyaOriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...
,
BengaliBengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
, and
PunjabiPunjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
. The term
PrakritPrakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious...
is also often applied to these languages (
prakrita literally means "natural" as opposed to
sanskrita, which literally means "constructed" or "refined"). Modern scholars such as Shapiro follow this classification by including all Middle Indo-Aryan languages under the rubric of "Prakrits", while others emphasise the independent development of these languages, often separated from the Sanskrit by social and geographic differences..
History
The
Indo-Aryan languagesThe Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
are commonly assigned to three major groups - Old, Middle and New Indo-Aryan -, a linguistic and not strictly chronological classification, since Classical Sanskrit co-existed with Middle Indic vernaculars. And a number of their morphophonological and lexical features betray the fact that they are not direct continuations of
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, the main base of "Classical" Sanskrit; rather they descend from dialects which, despite many similarities, were different from and in some regards even more archaic.
The Middle Indo-Aryan stage is thought to have spanned more than a millennium between 600 BC - 1000 AD, and is often divided into three or four major subdivisions. The early stage is represented by the inscriptions of Asoka (c. 250 BC) and by
Pāli
(used in Buddhist scriptures) and Ardhamāgadhī (used in Jain scriptures). The middle stage is represented by the various literary
PrakritPrakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious...
s, especially
SauraseniA Dramatic Prakrit, Shauraseni was the chief language used in drama in northern medieval India. Most of the material in this language originates from the 3rd to 10th centuries AD, though it was probably a spoken colloquial around the 5th century BC...
,
MaharashtriMaharastri or Maharastri Prakrit, SIL: Mahārāṣṭri Prākrit , is a language of ancient and medieval India which is the ancestor of Marathi, Konkani, Sinhala and the Maldivian language as well. It is one of the many languages of a complex called Prakrit, and the chief Dramatic Prakrit...
and
MagadhiMagadhi Prakrit is of one of the three Dramatic Prakrits, the written languages of Ancient India following the decline of Pali and Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was spoken in the eastern Indian subcontinent, in a region spanning what is now eastern India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. It is believed to be the...
. The late stage is represented by the
ApabhraṃśaApabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition between the late...
dialects of the sixth century AD and later
that preceded early Modern Indo-Aryan languages
(e.g.
Brij BhashaBraj Bhasha , also called Brij Bhasha , Braj Bhakha , or Dehaati Zabaan , is a Central Indian language closely related to Hindi...
).
Phonology and morphology
MIA languages, though individually distinct, share features of phonology and morphology which characterize them as parallel descendants of Old Indo-Aryan. Various sound changes are typical of the MIA phonology:
- The vocalic liquids '' and '' are replaced by 'a', 'i' or 'u';
- the diphthongs 'ai' and 'au' are monophthongized to 'e' and 'o';
- long vowels before two or more consonants are shortened;
- the three sibilants of OIA are reduced to one, either 'ś' or 's';
- the often complex consonant clusters of OIA are reduced to more readily pronounceable forms, either by assimilation or by splitting;
- single intervocalic stops are progressively weakened;
- dentals are palatalized by a following '-y-';
- all final consonants except '' are dropped unless they are retained in 'sandhi' junctions.
The most conspicuous features of the morphological system of these languages are: loss of the dual; thematicization of consonantal stems; merger of the f. 'i-/u-' and 'ī-/ū-' in one 'ī-/ū-' inflexion, elimination of the dative, whose functions are taken over by the genitive, simultaneous use of different case-endings in one paradigm; employment of '' and '' as genitives and 'me' and 'te' as instrumentals; gradual disappearance of the middle voice; coexistence of historical and new verbal forms based on the present stem; and use of active endings for the passive. In the vocabulary, the MIA languages are mostly dependent on Old Indo-Aryan, with addition of a few so-called 'deśī' words of (often) uncertain origin.
Innovation
A Middle Indo-Aryan innovation are the serial verb constructions that have evolved into complex predicates in modern north Indian languages such as Hindi. For example भाग जा (bhāg jā) 'go run' means run away, पका ले (pakā le) 'take cook' means to cook for oneself, and पका दे (pakā de) 'give cook' means to cook for someone. The second verb restricts the meaning of the main verb or adds a shade of meaning to it. Subsequently the second verb was
grammaticalisedIn linguistics, grammaticalization is a process by which words representing objects and actions transform through sound change and language migration to become grammatical objects...
further into what is known as a
light verbIn linguistics, a light verb is a verb participating in complex predication that has little semantic content of its own, but provides through inflection some details on the event semantics, such as aspect, mood, or tense...
,
mainly used to convey
lexical aspect distinctions for the main verb.
Apabhramsa
An
apabhramsa (also:
avahatta) was a language developed from Prakrits. Modern Provincial languages developed from different apabhramsas.
PatanjaliPatañjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as an unspecified work of medicine .In...
was the first to use apabhramsa in his Mahabhasya (200 B.C.). The term is derived from the Sanskrit word Apabhrasta, means a corrupted form of
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
. Mostly Jain religious language and
spiritualSpirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
literature of Siddhas was composed in Apabhramsa language.
When the Romani people migrated from
RajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
,
PunjabThe Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
,
SindhSindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
and
AfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
in the first century A.D, they were speaking an apabhramsa language pertaining to the Western part of India. They spread in Western countries around the 12 century A.D.
Apabhramsa poets
Literary work in apabhramsa appeared in eighth century A.D. Poets of apabhramsa are as follows:
- Svayambhu - his poem is Pauma Cariu
Gāndhārī
Many texts in kharoṣṭhi script have been discovered in the area centred on the
Khyber PassThe Khyber Pass, is a mountain pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan.The Pass was an integral part of the ancient Silk Road. It is mentioned in the Bible as the "Pesh Habor," and it is one of the oldest known passes in the world....
in what was known in ancient times as
GandharaGandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...
and the language of the texts came to be called Gāndhārī. These are largely Buddhist texts which parallel the Pāli Canon, but include Mahāyāna texts as well. The language is distinct from other MI dialects.
Magadhī
Known from a few inscriptions, most importantly the pillars and edicts of Asoka found in what is now Bihar.
Pāli
Pali is the best attested of the MI languages because of the extensive writings of early Buddhists. These include canonical texts, canonical developments such as Abhidhamma, and a thriving commentarial tradition associated with figures such as
BuddhaghosaBhadantācariya Buddhaghoṣa（Chinese: 覺音）was a 5th-century Indian Theravadin Buddhist commentator and scholar. His best-known work is the Visuddhimagga, or Path of Purification, a comprehensive summary and analysis of the Theravada understanding of the Buddha's path to liberation...
. Early Pāli texts, such as the Sutta-nipāta contain many "Magadhisms" (such as
heke for
eke; or masculine nominative singular in
-e). Pāli continued to be a living second language until well into the present millennium. The
Pali Text SocietyThe Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pali texts".Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved...
was founded in 1881 by T.W Rhys Davids to preserve, edit, and publish texts in Pāli, as well as English translations.
External links
The
Middle Indo-Aryan (
Middle Indic) languages are the early medieval dialects of the
Indo-Aryan languagesThe Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
, the descendants of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects such as
VedicVedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language...
& Classical Sanskrit, and the predecessors of the late medieval languages such as
ApabhramshaApabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition between the late...
or
AbahattaAbahatta, from Prakrit abasatta and ultimately from Sanskrit apaśabda "meaningless sound", is a stage in the evolution of the Eastern group of Indo-Aryan languages such as Bangla, Maithili, Oriya. It is also called Apabhramsa Avahatta, Apabhramsha Abahatta or Purvi Apabhramsa. Abahatta is...
, which eventually evolved into the contemporary Indo-Aryan languages, including
HindustaniHindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
(Hindi-Urdu),
OriyaOriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...
,
BengaliBengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
, and
PunjabiPunjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
. The term
PrakritPrakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious...
is also often applied to these languages (
prakrita literally means "natural" as opposed to
sanskrita, which literally means "constructed" or "refined"). Modern scholars such as Shapiro follow this classification by including all Middle Indo-Aryan languages under the rubric of "Prakrits", while others emphasise the independent development of these languages, often separated from the Sanskrit by social and geographic differences..
History
The
Indo-Aryan languagesThe Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
are commonly assigned to three major groups - Old, Middle and New Indo-Aryan -, a linguistic and not strictly chronological classification, since Classical Sanskrit co-existed with Middle Indic vernaculars. And a number of their morphophonological and lexical features betray the fact that they are not direct continuations of
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, the main base of "Classical" Sanskrit; rather they descend from dialects which, despite many similarities, were different from and in some regards even more archaic.
The Middle Indo-Aryan stage is thought to have spanned more than a millennium between 600 BC - 1000 AD, and is often divided into three or four major subdivisions. The early stage is represented by the inscriptions of Asoka (c. 250 BC) and by
Pāli
(used in Buddhist scriptures) and Ardhamāgadhī (used in Jain scriptures). The middle stage is represented by the various literary
PrakritPrakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious...
s, especially
SauraseniA Dramatic Prakrit, Shauraseni was the chief language used in drama in northern medieval India. Most of the material in this language originates from the 3rd to 10th centuries AD, though it was probably a spoken colloquial around the 5th century BC...
,
MaharashtriMaharastri or Maharastri Prakrit, SIL: Mahārāṣṭri Prākrit , is a language of ancient and medieval India which is the ancestor of Marathi, Konkani, Sinhala and the Maldivian language as well. It is one of the many languages of a complex called Prakrit, and the chief Dramatic Prakrit...
and
MagadhiMagadhi Prakrit is of one of the three Dramatic Prakrits, the written languages of Ancient India following the decline of Pali and Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was spoken in the eastern Indian subcontinent, in a region spanning what is now eastern India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. It is believed to be the...
. The late stage is represented by the
ApabhraṃśaApabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition between the late...
dialects of the sixth century AD and later
that preceded early Modern Indo-Aryan languages
(e.g.
Brij BhashaBraj Bhasha , also called Brij Bhasha , Braj Bhakha , or Dehaati Zabaan , is a Central Indian language closely related to Hindi...
).
Phonology and morphology
MIA languages, though individually distinct, share features of phonology and morphology which characterize them as parallel descendants of Old Indo-Aryan. Various sound changes are typical of the MIA phonology:
- The vocalic liquids '' and '' are replaced by 'a', 'i' or 'u';
- the diphthongs 'ai' and 'au' are monophthongized to 'e' and 'o';
- long vowels before two or more consonants are shortened;
- the three sibilants of OIA are reduced to one, either 'ś' or 's';
- the often complex consonant clusters of OIA are reduced to more readily pronounceable forms, either by assimilation or by splitting;
- single intervocalic stops are progressively weakened;
- dentals are palatalized by a following '-y-';
- all final consonants except '' are dropped unless they are retained in 'sandhi' junctions.
The most conspicuous features of the morphological system of these languages are: loss of the dual; thematicization of consonantal stems; merger of the f. 'i-/u-' and 'ī-/ū-' in one 'ī-/ū-' inflexion, elimination of the dative, whose functions are taken over by the genitive, simultaneous use of different case-endings in one paradigm; employment of '' and '' as genitives and 'me' and 'te' as instrumentals; gradual disappearance of the middle voice; coexistence of historical and new verbal forms based on the present stem; and use of active endings for the passive. In the vocabulary, the MIA languages are mostly dependent on Old Indo-Aryan, with addition of a few so-called 'deśī' words of (often) uncertain origin.
Innovation
A Middle Indo-Aryan innovation are the serial verb constructions that have evolved into complex predicates in modern north Indian languages such as Hindi. For example भाग जा (bhāg jā) 'go run' means run away, पका ले (pakā le) 'take cook' means to cook for oneself, and पका दे (pakā de) 'give cook' means to cook for someone. The second verb restricts the meaning of the main verb or adds a shade of meaning to it. Subsequently the second verb was
grammaticalisedIn linguistics, grammaticalization is a process by which words representing objects and actions transform through sound change and language migration to become grammatical objects...
further into what is known as a
light verbIn linguistics, a light verb is a verb participating in complex predication that has little semantic content of its own, but provides through inflection some details on the event semantics, such as aspect, mood, or tense...
,
mainly used to convey
lexical aspect distinctions for the main verb.
Apabhramsa
An
apabhramsa (also:
avahatta) was a language developed from Prakrits. Modern Provincial languages developed from different apabhramsas.
PatanjaliPatañjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as an unspecified work of medicine .In...
was the first to use apabhramsa in his Mahabhasya (200 B.C.). The term is derived from the Sanskrit word Apabhrasta, means a corrupted form of
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
. Mostly Jain religious language and
spiritualSpirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
literature of Siddhas was composed in Apabhramsa language.
When the Romani people migrated from
RajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
,
PunjabThe Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
,
SindhSindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
and
AfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
in the first century A.D, they were speaking an apabhramsa language pertaining to the Western part of India. They spread in Western countries around the 12 century A.D.
Apabhramsa poets
Literary work in apabhramsa appeared in eighth century A.D. Poets of apabhramsa are as follows:
- Svayambhu - his poem is Pauma Cariu
Gāndhārī
Many texts in kharoṣṭhi script have been discovered in the area centred on the
Khyber PassThe Khyber Pass, is a mountain pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan.The Pass was an integral part of the ancient Silk Road. It is mentioned in the Bible as the "Pesh Habor," and it is one of the oldest known passes in the world....
in what was known in ancient times as
GandharaGandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...
and the language of the texts came to be called Gāndhārī. These are largely Buddhist texts which parallel the Pāli Canon, but include Mahāyāna texts as well. The language is distinct from other MI dialects.
Magadhī
Known from a few inscriptions, most importantly the pillars and edicts of Asoka found in what is now Bihar.
Pāli
Pali is the best attested of the MI languages because of the extensive writings of early Buddhists. These include canonical texts, canonical developments such as Abhidhamma, and a thriving commentarial tradition associated with figures such as
BuddhaghosaBhadantācariya Buddhaghoṣa（Chinese: 覺音）was a 5th-century Indian Theravadin Buddhist commentator and scholar. His best-known work is the Visuddhimagga, or Path of Purification, a comprehensive summary and analysis of the Theravada understanding of the Buddha's path to liberation...
. Early Pāli texts, such as the Sutta-nipāta contain many "Magadhisms" (such as
heke for
eke; or masculine nominative singular in
-e). Pāli continued to be a living second language until well into the present millennium. The
Pali Text SocietyThe Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pali texts".Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved...
was founded in 1881 by T.W Rhys Davids to preserve, edit, and publish texts in Pāli, as well as English translations.
External links
The
Middle Indo-Aryan (
Middle Indic) languages are the early medieval dialects of the
Indo-Aryan languagesThe Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
, the descendants of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects such as
VedicVedic Sanskrit is an old Indo-Aryan language. It is an archaic form of Sanskrit, an early descendant of Proto-Indo-Iranian. It is closely related to Avestan, the oldest preserved Iranian language...
& Classical Sanskrit, and the predecessors of the late medieval languages such as
ApabhramshaApabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition between the late...
or
AbahattaAbahatta, from Prakrit abasatta and ultimately from Sanskrit apaśabda "meaningless sound", is a stage in the evolution of the Eastern group of Indo-Aryan languages such as Bangla, Maithili, Oriya. It is also called Apabhramsa Avahatta, Apabhramsha Abahatta or Purvi Apabhramsa. Abahatta is...
, which eventually evolved into the contemporary Indo-Aryan languages, including
HindustaniHindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
(Hindi-Urdu),
OriyaOriya , officially Odia from November, 2011, is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian states of Orissa and West Bengal...
,
BengaliBengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
, and
PunjabiPunjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
. The term
PrakritPrakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious...
is also often applied to these languages (
prakrita literally means "natural" as opposed to
sanskrita, which literally means "constructed" or "refined"). Modern scholars such as Shapiro follow this classification by including all Middle Indo-Aryan languages under the rubric of "Prakrits", while others emphasise the independent development of these languages, often separated from the Sanskrit by social and geographic differences..
History
The
Indo-Aryan languagesThe Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
are commonly assigned to three major groups - Old, Middle and New Indo-Aryan -, a linguistic and not strictly chronological classification, since Classical Sanskrit co-existed with Middle Indic vernaculars. And a number of their morphophonological and lexical features betray the fact that they are not direct continuations of
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, the main base of "Classical" Sanskrit; rather they descend from dialects which, despite many similarities, were different from and in some regards even more archaic.
The Middle Indo-Aryan stage is thought to have spanned more than a millennium between 600 BC - 1000 AD, and is often divided into three or four major subdivisions. The early stage is represented by the inscriptions of Asoka (c. 250 BC) and by
Pāli
(used in Buddhist scriptures) and Ardhamāgadhī (used in Jain scriptures). The middle stage is represented by the various literary
PrakritPrakrit is the name for a group of Middle Indic, Indo-Aryan languages, derived from Old Indic dialects. The word itself has a flexible definition, being defined sometimes as, "original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual", or "vernacular", in contrast to the literary and religious...
s, especially
SauraseniA Dramatic Prakrit, Shauraseni was the chief language used in drama in northern medieval India. Most of the material in this language originates from the 3rd to 10th centuries AD, though it was probably a spoken colloquial around the 5th century BC...
,
MaharashtriMaharastri or Maharastri Prakrit, SIL: Mahārāṣṭri Prākrit , is a language of ancient and medieval India which is the ancestor of Marathi, Konkani, Sinhala and the Maldivian language as well. It is one of the many languages of a complex called Prakrit, and the chief Dramatic Prakrit...
and
MagadhiMagadhi Prakrit is of one of the three Dramatic Prakrits, the written languages of Ancient India following the decline of Pali and Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was spoken in the eastern Indian subcontinent, in a region spanning what is now eastern India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. It is believed to be the...
. The late stage is represented by the
ApabhraṃśaApabhraṃśa is a term used by Sanskrit grammarians since Patañjali to refer to dialects that deviate from the norm of Sanskrit grammar. The term in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language". It is used as a cover term for the dialects forming the transition between the late...
dialects of the sixth century AD and later
that preceded early Modern Indo-Aryan languages
(e.g.
Brij BhashaBraj Bhasha , also called Brij Bhasha , Braj Bhakha , or Dehaati Zabaan , is a Central Indian language closely related to Hindi...
).
Phonology and morphology
MIA languages, though individually distinct, share features of phonology and morphology which characterize them as parallel descendants of Old Indo-Aryan. Various sound changes are typical of the MIA phonology:
- The vocalic liquids '' and '' are replaced by 'a', 'i' or 'u';
- the diphthongs 'ai' and 'au' are monophthongized to 'e' and 'o';
- long vowels before two or more consonants are shortened;
- the three sibilants of OIA are reduced to one, either 'ś' or 's';
- the often complex consonant clusters of OIA are reduced to more readily pronounceable forms, either by assimilation or by splitting;
- single intervocalic stops are progressively weakened;
- dentals are palatalized by a following '-y-';
- all final consonants except '' are dropped unless they are retained in 'sandhi' junctions.
The most conspicuous features of the morphological system of these languages are: loss of the dual; thematicization of consonantal stems; merger of the f. 'i-/u-' and 'ī-/ū-' in one 'ī-/ū-' inflexion, elimination of the dative, whose functions are taken over by the genitive, simultaneous use of different case-endings in one paradigm; employment of '' and '' as genitives and 'me' and 'te' as instrumentals; gradual disappearance of the middle voice; coexistence of historical and new verbal forms based on the present stem; and use of active endings for the passive. In the vocabulary, the MIA languages are mostly dependent on Old Indo-Aryan, with addition of a few so-called 'deśī' words of (often) uncertain origin.
Innovation
A Middle Indo-Aryan innovation are the serial verb constructions that have evolved into complex predicates in modern north Indian languages such as Hindi. For example भाग जा (bhāg jā) 'go run' means run away, पका ले (pakā le) 'take cook' means to cook for oneself, and पका दे (pakā de) 'give cook' means to cook for someone. The second verb restricts the meaning of the main verb or adds a shade of meaning to it. Subsequently the second verb was
grammaticalisedIn linguistics, grammaticalization is a process by which words representing objects and actions transform through sound change and language migration to become grammatical objects...
further into what is known as a
light verbIn linguistics, a light verb is a verb participating in complex predication that has little semantic content of its own, but provides through inflection some details on the event semantics, such as aspect, mood, or tense...
,
mainly used to convey
lexical aspect distinctions for the main verb.
Apabhramsa
An
apabhramsa (also:
avahatta) was a language developed from Prakrits. Modern Provincial languages developed from different apabhramsas.
PatanjaliPatañjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as an unspecified work of medicine .In...
was the first to use apabhramsa in his Mahabhasya (200 B.C.). The term is derived from the Sanskrit word Apabhrasta, means a corrupted form of
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
. Mostly Jain religious language and
spiritualSpirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
literature of Siddhas was composed in Apabhramsa language.
When the Romani people migrated from
RajasthanRājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
,
PunjabThe Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
,
SindhSindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
and
AfghanistanAfghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
in the first century A.D, they were speaking an apabhramsa language pertaining to the Western part of India. They spread in Western countries around the 12 century A.D.
Apabhramsa poets
Literary work in apabhramsa appeared in eighth century A.D. Poets of apabhramsa are as follows:
- Svayambhu - his poem is Pauma Cariu
Gāndhārī
Many texts in kharoṣṭhi script have been discovered in the area centred on the
Khyber PassThe Khyber Pass, is a mountain pass linking Pakistan and Afghanistan.The Pass was an integral part of the ancient Silk Road. It is mentioned in the Bible as the "Pesh Habor," and it is one of the oldest known passes in the world....
in what was known in ancient times as
GandharaGandhāra , is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...
and the language of the texts came to be called Gāndhārī. These are largely Buddhist texts which parallel the Pāli Canon, but include Mahāyāna texts as well. The language is distinct from other MI dialects.
Magadhī
Known from a few inscriptions, most importantly the pillars and edicts of Asoka found in what is now Bihar.
Pāli
Pali is the best attested of the MI languages because of the extensive writings of early Buddhists. These include canonical texts, canonical developments such as Abhidhamma, and a thriving commentarial tradition associated with figures such as
BuddhaghosaBhadantācariya Buddhaghoṣa（Chinese: 覺音）was a 5th-century Indian Theravadin Buddhist commentator and scholar. His best-known work is the Visuddhimagga, or Path of Purification, a comprehensive summary and analysis of the Theravada understanding of the Buddha's path to liberation...
. Early Pāli texts, such as the Sutta-nipāta contain many "Magadhisms" (such as
heke for
eke; or masculine nominative singular in
-e). Pāli continued to be a living second language until well into the present millennium. The
Pali Text SocietyThe Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pali texts".Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved...
was founded in 1881 by T.W Rhys Davids to preserve, edit, and publish texts in Pāli, as well as English translations.
External links