Indo-Aryan Languages

Table of Contents

• 1. Indo-Aryan Languages
  • 1.1 Languages of the Group
  • 1.2 History and Origins of Indo-Aryan Languages
    • Sanskrt stage (1500 BC - 900 BC ) or Old Indo-Aryan
    • Bibhasa stage ( - 700 BC ) or Middle Indo-Aryan
    • Prakrit stage ( 700 BC - present ) or New Indo-Aryan
  • 1.3 Linguistic Characteristics
    • Vocabulary
    • Grammar
    • Writing System
• 2. Madhyi Prakrits ( Central Indo-Aryan Languages )
  • History and Development
  • Linguistic Characterisitcs
• 3. Deccani Prakrits ( Southern Indo-Aryan Languages )
  • Languages of the family - incl Andhri
  • Historical Development
  • Linguistic features
• 4. Purbi Prakrits ( East Indo-Aryan Languages )
  • Historcal Survey / Origin and History
  • Characteristics

Languages of the Group

• Ancient/Old Indo-Aryan languages Sanskrit -
• Intermediate Indo-Aryan languages or Bibhasas - This family comprises Uttari ( Northern ) Bibhasa, Madhyi ( Central ) Bibhasa and Dakshini ( Southern ) Bibhasa.
• Modern Indo-Aryan languages or Prakrits - These comprise most of the modern languages of India

Of these, the languages in the first two categories are extinct ( dead ), while Sanskrit has been preserved as the sacred language of the Vedas and other sciptures sacred to the Aryan Vishnuite religion.

The Prakrits are in turn divided into geographical categories :

• Madhyi Prakrits or Central Indo-Aryan or Aryavartan languages
• Purbi Prakrits or Eastern Indo-Aryan languages
• Deccani Prakrits or Southern Aryan languages

A further category, the Uttari Prakrits, is extinct.

These in turn have earlier and later stages; thus for instance, Old Oriya is known as Odri, Old Marathi as Maharashtri, Old Gujarati as Saurashtri etc. These Old Prakrits are still intelligible to a modern Aryan speaker in the smae manner as Old Anglo-Saxon is still intelligible to a modern Englishman.

Linguistic Characterisitics of the Indo-Aryan Languages

Grammar - The grammar of these languages closely follows Sanskrit. Most possess 8 grammatical cases like Sanskrit.

Writing Systems - THe writing system is Devanagari, the script for Sanskrit.

Vocabulary - The overwhelming majority of words are obtained from Sanskrit. The fraction in general exceeds 80 %, often reaching 90 %.

History and Developement

The term Romance Latin is derived from the medieaval term `Latin Romaniscus' which was used to denote a vernacular type of Latin speech and literature in the vernacular [EB 22 'Langs of the World' 640 ] . It is from these that the independant languages of Southern Europe are derived. A comparison of the family tree of the Sanskritic languages with the Romance languages is :

Languages of the family

Historical Development

Linguistic Characteristics

Languages of the family

Marathi and Vidarbhi are the languages directly derived from the Deccani Vibhasa with minimal external influences. Old Gujarati was known as Sauraseni, and was later displaced by Gujjari ( Khazari or Middle Gujarati ). Later this language was Sanskritized to become Gujarati ( Modern Gujarati ).

Andhri is included in this family, and not the Dravidian family for the following reasons :

1. Andhri contains a much higher percentage of Sanskrit loans than the other Dravidian languages.
2. Andhras follow the Aryan Vaishnavite religion ( cf. the Tirupati temple ), in contrast to the Dravidians, who are Shaivite.
3. Anthropological surveys indicate that the Andhras are preponderantly mulatto ( mixed white Aryan and black Dravidian ). It thus would be natural to consider Andhri to be a creole which was gradually Sanskritized.

Linguistic Characteristics

Writing Systems - The purest Sanskrit derivative of this family, Marathi, utilizes the Devanagari script. Gujarati uses a cursive derivative, while Andhri uses a Brahmi-based script with heavy Dravidian influence.

Vocabulary - Marathi has the highest proportion of Sanskrit loanwords of both tatsam and tatbhava derivation, exceeding 90 % in the case of Shuudh Marathi. Vidarbhi also contains loans to the tune of 90 % of hte language. These were the two regions most easily accessible to Aryan imigration form the north. Gujarati contains a lower proportion of Sanskrit loans. Literary Andhri contains more than 70 % Sanskrit lonas, but here the dichotomy between the cultured language ( spoken by the high-caste Aryans ) and the colloquial tongue ( spoken by the Dravidians ) is more apparent then in the other languages.

Historical Development

Historical Survey

The Eastern Indo-Aryan, or Purbi languages, are descended from Sanskrit via the intermediate Purbi or Pracyi Bibhasa. Each of these languages has Older and Later stages. Old Bengali = Vangi or Gaudi Old Oriya = Odri

Linguistic Characteristics

Vocabulary. The vocabulary of the Purbi or Eastern Indo-Aryan Languages is, as with all languages of the Indo-Aryan family, heavily based on Sanskrit. However, they are less Senskrit-nased than the Midland Indo-Aryan languages, containing a larger fraction of Mon-Khmer words. Vocabulary from Islamicate languages ( Arabic, Perisna, Turkish and Hindustani ) represent only a small part of the Purbi language, while Kolarian ( Indo-Austric ) or Dravidian words are more common in Oriya, while Mon-Khmer words are more abundant in Assamese. Thus, Bengali is approximatley 75 % Sanskrit, with 2 % words of an Islamic derivation [ Chatterji p.256 ]. 70 % of Oriya vocabulary is of Sanskrit origin, the remaining 30 % comprising Kolarian ( or Indo-Austric ) and Dravidian loanwords [ Oriya Lit p.2 ], with words from Islamicate languages ( Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Hindustani ) comprising only 2 % [ CHC Orissa II : 1, p.15 ].

Bengali

Oriya

• Kalingan Austric Language : The original inhabitants of Orissa were the black Austric aboriginals who spoke referred to their kingdom as `Kalinga' and spoke a now extinct language known as Kalingan. It was similar to the Austric languages still spoken in the East Ghats hills.
• Odri Prakrit or Old Oriya
  A steady stream of immigraton of Indo-Aryan Vaishnava Oriyas started occurring around the 8th century AD. The Oriya worldview was diametrically opposite to that of the Kalingans: The Kalingans were black-skinned aboriginal Australoids, the Oriyas were fair-skinned Indo-Aryans; the Kanlingans were Saivite, the Oriyas Vasihanva; the Kalingans were licentious, the Oriyas extremely modest. Hence the rulers of Kalinga did not encourage Oriya language or literature.
• Classical Oriya or Middle Oriya With the ascent of the Surya Maharaja Kapilendradeva the Austric ( "Adivasi") empire of Kalinga ended and the Indo-Aryan empire of Orissa began. The Oriya language became the official

Assamese

Apabrahmnsa

Refernces

• [Kavya] = `Indian Kavya Literature' - AKWarder Motilal Banarsidas 2 ed 1989 New Delhi Vol.I
• [Oriya Lit] = ` An Approach to Oriya Literature (A Historical Survey) ' - JBMohanty Panchashila BBSR-9, 1988
• [JKSamal ] = ` Comprehensive History and Culture of Orissa' ed JKSamal, Kaveri Books 1997 New Delhi, 2 vols, 2 parts each
• [CHI] = Cutural History of India, Ramakrishna Mission Institute of culture Calcutta 1 ed 1937 Vol. I `Linguistic Survey of India: Languages and Scripts' - SKChatterji p.53-75
• [Chatterji] = ` Indo-Aryan and Hindi ' - S.K.Chatterji, Firma K.L.Mukhopadhyay Calcutta-12 2nd ed. April 1960
• [Apabr] = ` Historical Grammar of Apabhramsa' - GVTagare, Motilal Banarisdas 1 ed 1948 Delhi
• [Vira] = `A Comprehensive English-Hindi Dictionary of Government and Educational Words and Phrases' - Prof. Dr. R. Vira June 1981 Intl Academy of Indian Culture
• [Manorama] = `Manorama Yearbook', Malayala Manorama 1997, Kottayam Kerala

Keywords

• Middle Indo-Aryan languages " Madhyadesi " Braj Bhasa, Kannauji, Marwari,
• Eastern Indo-Aryan " Pracyi or Purbi " languages: Bengali, Oriya, Assamese,
• Indo-Scythian " Saka " languages Gujarati, Malavi, Gurjari, Ahiri/Ahirwadi
• " Daksini or Daksinatyi " languages: Andhri, Kerali, Kannada,

1. Sanskritic Stage: During this period the Aryan invaders spoke Sanskrit.
   
2. Bibhasa Stage: With the passage of time and the dispersal of the Aryans over large parts of the continent that lacked means of mutual communication, local dialects of Sanskrit developed. These local dialects are referred to as Bibhasas. Influence of the pre-Aryan languages ( Dravidian, Mon-Khmer, Austric ) also played a role in the development of these tongues.
   
3. Prakrit Stage: With the gradual emergence of Aryan nations, the Bibhasas further developed into national languages, the Prakrits. A Prakrit was defined as any regional language that was derived from Sanskrit via the intermediate Bibhasas. An analogous development took place in Europe later, where the Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian etc.) are derived from Latin just as the Prakrits and modern Indo-Aryan languages are derived from Sanskrit:
   

          
           Sanskrit --> Bibhasas (4) --> Prakrits (7-10?) 
   
    
           Latin    --> Romance Latins --> Romance Languages (7-10) 
   
   

   The modern Indo-Aryan languages are thus essentially Prakrits, and the earliest Prakrit can be considered as the Old Stage for any of the Indo-Aryan languages. A speaker of any Indo-Aryan language of today can understand much of the ancient Prakrits.

Malayalam (`mountainous country'= /mala/ - mountain + /aLam/ - place) The earliest written record of Malayalam is the /vazhatinaLL/ inscription ca. 830 AD. The earliest extant prose work in the langauge is the Bhashakautaliyam (12 C) on Chanakya's Arthashastra. In the 13 C /vattezhutu/ (round writing) descended from the original Indo-Ayran Brahmi script, gave rise to the malayalam writing system.Old Malayalam had more than 900 letters and was very rich in the large number of sounds that could be expressed in it. In the 1960s many of the special letters were dispensed with. and the new script has less than 90 letters. This was mainly done to include Malayalam in the keyboards of typewriters and computers. Malayalam vocaulary is 80% Snaskrit derivation, the Brahmin dialects bieng more Sanskritized than the Harijan.The Chrisitian dialects contain a higher proportion of Portuguese, Latin, Syriac and English loanwords.

Appendix

Prakrits

The tree of descent of all Indo-Aryan languages ( both live and extinct) is as follows (extinct languages shown in square brackets):

                Bibhasas           Prakrit            Modern Prakrit

 Sanskrit --> Uttari Bibhasa  --> Gandhari         (extinct)
                              --> Kambhoji         (extinct)

              Madhyi Bibhasa  --> Sauraseni    --> Braj Bhasa 

                                               --> Mewati 

                              --> Avanti       --> Marwari
                                               --> [Malavi replaced East
                                                   Avanti]
                              
                              --> Panchali     --> Khari Boli or Haryani
                              --> Koshali      --> Bhojpuri 
                                               --> Kannauji 
                                               --> Ayodhyi (not Awadhi!)
                              --> Magadhi      --> Magahi 
                              

              Pracyi Bibhasa  --> Vangi/Gaudi  --> Bengali 

                              --> Odri         --> Oriya 

                              --> Kamrupi         (exinct, survives as a 
                                                   dialect of Ahomi/Assamese)

                              --> Angi         --> Angika
                              --> Mathili      --> Mithili

              Dakshini Bibhasa --> Maharashtri --> Marathi (Marathwada)

                               --> Vidarbhi    --> Varhadi (Vidarbha) 

                               --> Saurashtri       (extinct, replaced 
                                                    by Gujarati)
                               --> Andhrai      --> Andhri 

                               --> Karnadi      --> Kannada 
             

This may be compared to the Latin tree:

  Latin --> Iberian Romance --> Spanish 
                            --> Portuguese
                            --> Catalan
        --> Italic Romance --> Italian
        --> Balkan Romance  --> Romanian
                            --> Dalmatian
        --> Gallic Romance  --> French 
                            --> Occitan
                            --> Rhaetian         

The classification of the modern Indo-Aryan languages is as follows:

Madhyadesyi -- Braj Bhasa
            -- Kannauji
            -- Awadhi
            -- Eastern Koshali

Rajastani -- Marwari
          -- Mewari
          -- Malavi
          -- Harauti

Other -- Bundeli, Bagheli, Gondi, Dogri, etc.

Magadhi was the language of government and administration and perhaps most literature. Sanskrit was used in the larned writings of the priests. and was probably restricted to a narrow circle. Pali is very close to Old Magadhi. Pali was apparently spoken in Western india during the Magadhan Empire. [kavya I p.3]

Paisaci was used from 4C BC to the 1 C BC in Daskinapatha for secular literature . [Kavya I p.5]

`From ... Bharata and ... markandeya we come to know about the Udra language ... and the Udra tribe. According to Bharata [ from his Natyasastra 2 C BC ], Udra is one of 7 Bibhasas, a sort of dialect born out of the association of Sanskrit with an aboriginal language... Acording to Prakruta Sarbaswasa, a prakrit grammar of Markandeya, Udra is one of the 4 types of Prakrit ' [Oriya Lit p.1] ` Apabhramsa is `mentined as the "dialect of the Abhiras" and was called "Abhiri" and is mentioned in ca. 300 AD in Bharata's Natyasastra {Kavyamala No. 42} : " Apabhramsa is an uncultured dialect ( Vibhasa ) spoken by herdsmen" It had a lower status than Prakrit and abounded in u's. Kalidasa considered Prakrit too dignified a medium to be used for the raving of mad Puruvas and used Apabhramsa instead. ' [ Natyasastra Kavyamala No. 42 ] [ Apabhr. p.7 and p.4]

Composition

Oriya

Austric

The unity of the races of Chota Nagpur (Jharkhand) and the Oceanic and Australoid Negroids is demonstrated by several observations: black skin, broad nose, thick lips, abundant body hair (this feature ditinguishing these races from the less hairy Africans, along with flaxen hair in childhhod), long forearm, curly hair, use of the boomerang, the practice of male and female circumcision, the use of the boomerang etc. Linguistically a unity has also been realized:

` In 1906 Wilhelm Schmidt, a Germa priest and anthropologist, classed Austro-Asiatic with the Austronesian languages (formerly called Malayo-Polynesian ) to form a larger family called Austric.' [EB 22:719:1a]

Indeed it is thought that all Australoids and Oceanic Negroids (Melanesians) originated in Eastern India.

Dravidian

The Dravidians originally came from Africa and settled in India after the arrival of the Pygmoid Veddoids, eventually occupying all of India except the east which was peopled by the `Naga' Mongoloid Mon-Khmers. They mixed with the Mesopotamian Semites in NW India to give rise to the Indus Valley people. Thus the Indus Valley language was mixed African-Semitic. With the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization, these people moved south and eventually were driven to what is now Tamil Nadu under the pressure of the Indo-Aryan invaders. Thus Tamil is a direct descendant of the Semitic-African Indus Valley language. However, more the more primitive languages of the Dravidian family preserve their African characteristics (linguistic and physical) more purely than the Tamils, who have the highest amount of Semitic mixture.

` Tamil has the relatively lowest proportion of Indo-Aryan loanwords [of all Dravidian languages] (18-25 % according to the style), whereas in Malayalam and Telugu the % is sustantially higher ... most importatn sources are Sanskrit, pali, Prakrit ... modern Urdu, Portuguese and English.' [EB 22(`Languages ...'):718:2a]

` Inspite of the Adivasi and Dravidian influence etc., about 70% words of modern Oriya language are tatsama or tadbhava, directly taken from Sanskrit. The Aryanisation [of Orissa] began 8C AD.' [Oriya Lit p.2]
` In the course of time in the vocabulary of the Oriya language, more than 2000 Persian, Arabic,Turkish and Urdu words found their place [poets incl. Upendra Bhanja used Muslim words] [JKSamal Vol II Part 1 p.15]

Bengali
` Bengali has 2500 Perso-Arabic words out of a total of 120 000 in the 2nd edition of its biggest dictionary by the late Jnanendra Mohan Das ... [Suddhe Hindi or kahro Boli hence] at least 5000' [Chatterji 256] `One ony has to look at the big-size dictionaries of these languages [the modern languages of North and South India, ie. Kannada,Telugu, malayalam in South India] and calculate. One finds that out of 1 lac [100,000] vocabulary entries the Sanskrit element is between 70-80 thousand. Even in Tamil, which has treid to maintain relative purity of usage, and has less Sanskrit then the others, the number of Sanskrit words is above 40,000 ' [Vira p.24]