Middle Indo-Aryan languages

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Middle Indo-Aryan
Middle Indic
Geographic
distribution		Northern India
Linguistic classification Indo-European
Language codes
Glottolog midd1350

The Middle Indo-Aryan languages (or Middle Indic languages, sometimes conflated with the Prakrits, which are a stage of Middle Indic) are a historical group of languages of the Indo-Aryan family. They are the descendants of Old Indo-Aryan (OIA; attested through Vedic Sanskrit) and the predecessors of the modern Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu), Bengali and Punjabi.

Contents

The Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) stage is thought to have spanned more than a millennium between 600 BCE and 1000 CE, and is often divided into three major subdivisions.

History

The Indo-Aryan languages are commonly assigned to three major groups: Old Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan languages and Early Modern and Modern Indo-Aryan languages. The classification reflects stages in linguistic development, rather than being strictly chronological. [3] [4]

The Middle Indo-Aryan languages are younger than the Old Indo-Aryan languages [5] but were contemporaneous with the use of Classical Sanskrit, an Old Indo-Aryan language used for literary purposes. [6]

According to Thomas Oberlies, a number of morphophonological and lexical features of Middle Indo-Aryan languages show that they are not direct continuations of Vedic Sanskrit. Instead they descend from other dialects similar to, but in some ways more archaic than Vedic Sanskrit. [3]

Early phase (3rd century BCE)

Middle phase (200 BCE to 700 CE)

Late phase: Apabhraṃśa (700–1500)

General characteristics

The following phonological changes distinguish typical MIA languages from their OIA ancestors: [7]

  1. The replacement of vocalic liquids ṛ and ḷ by a, i or u
  2. The OIA diphthongs ai and au became the monophthongs e and o which were long in open syllables and short in closed syllables.
  3. Long vowels become short in overweight and later pre/post-tonic heavy syllables.
  4. The three sibilants of OIA are reduced to one, either ś (Magadhi) or s (elsewhere).
  5. OIA clusters either became geminates through assimilation (deletion if the output would violate phonotactics) or were split by vowel epenthesis.
  6. Initially, intervocalic aspirated stops spirantised. Later, all other intervocalic stops were deleted, weakened, or voiced.
  7. Dentals (and sometimes retroflexes) are palatalised if directly preceding /j/.
  8. Most final consonants delete except in sandhi junctions. Final m became ṃ instead, which was preserved.

Note that not all of these changes happened in all MIA languages. Archaisms persisted in northwestern Ashokan prakrits like the retention of all 3 OIA sibilants, for example, retentions that would remain in the later Dardic languages.

The following morphological changes distinguish typical MIA languages from their OIA ancestors:

  1. The dual number in nominal declensions was lost.
  2. Consonantal stems were thematicised.
  3. The i-/u- and ī-/ū- declensions were merged into one ī-/ū- declension.
  4. The dative was eliminated and the genitive took on its former functions.
  5. Many different case-endings could be used for one verbal paradigm.
  6. The middle voice eventually disappeared.
  7. mahyaṃ and tubyaṃ became used for genitives and me and te for instrumentals.
  8. New verbal forms based on the present stem coexisted with fossilized forms from OIA.
  9. Active endings replaced passive endings for the passive voice.

A Middle Indo-Aryan innovation are the serial verb constructions that have evolved into complex predicates in modern north Indian languages such as Hindi and Bengali. 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. [1] Subsequently, the second verb was grammaticalised further into what is known as a light verb, mainly used to convey lexical aspect distinctions for the main verb.

The innovation is based on Sanskrit atmanepadi (fruit of the action accrues to the doer) and parasmaipadi verbs (fruit of the action accrues to some other than the doer). For example, पका दे (pakā de) 'give cook' has the result of the action (cooked food) going to someone else, and पका ले (pakā le) 'take cook' to the one who is doing the cooking.

Attested languages

Pāli

Pali is the best attested of the Middle Indo-Aryan 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 Buddhaghosa. 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 second millennium. The Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T. W. Rhys Davids to preserve, edit, and publish texts in Pāli, as well as English translations.

Ardhamāgadhī

Known from a few inscriptions, most importantly the pillars and edicts of Ashoka found in what is now Bihar. [8]

Gāndhārī

Many texts in Kharoṣṭhi script have been discovered in the area centred on the Khyber Pass in what was known in ancient times as Gandhara 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.

Elu

Elu (also Eḷa, Hela or Helu Prakrit) was a Sri Lankan Prakrit of the 3rd century BCE. It was ancestral to the Sinhalese and Dhivehi languages. One major source of sample is from Thonigala Rock Inscriptions, Anamaduwa.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prakrit</span> Group of languages of the 3rd century BCE – 8th century CE

Prakrit is a group of vernacular classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of Middle Indo-Aryan languages, excluding earlier inscriptions and Pali.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanskrit</span> Ancient Indo-European language of South Asia

Sanskrit is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age. Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture, and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies.

Pāli, also known as Pali-Magadhi, is a classical Middle Indo-Aryan language on the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist Pāli Canon or Tipiṭaka as well as the sacred language of Theravāda Buddhism. Pali is designated as a classical language by the Government of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indo-Aryan languages</span> Branch of the Indo-Iranian languages

The Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal. Moreover, apart from the Indian subcontinent, large immigrant and expatriate Indo-Aryan–speaking communities live in Northwestern Europe, Western Asia, North America, the Caribbean, Southeast Africa, Polynesia and Australia, along with several million speakers of Romani languages primarily concentrated in Southeastern Europe. There are over 200 known Indo-Aryan languages.

Vedic Sanskrit, also simply referred as the Vedic language, is an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature compiled over the period of the mid-2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE. It is orally preserved, predating the advent of writing by several centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magadha</span> Empire in ancient India


Magadha, also called the Kingdom of Magadha or the Magadha Empire, was a kingdom and empire, and one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas, 'Great Footholds of the People' during the Second Urbanization period, based in southern Bihar in the eastern Ganges Plain, in Ancient India. Magadha was ruled by the Brihadratha dynasty, the Haryanka dynasty, the Shaishunaga dynasty, the Nanda dynasty, the Mauryan dynasty, the Shunga dynasty, the Kanva dynasty, the Gupta dynasty and the Later Gupta dynasty (490–700). Kanva dynasty lost much of its territory after being defeated by the Satavahanas of Deccan in 28 BCE and was reduced to a small principality around Pataliputra. However, with the rule of Gupta Empire, The Gupta Empire regained the Glory of Magadh. Under the Mauryas, Magadha became a pan-Indian empire, covering large swaths of the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan. The Magadh under the Gupta Empire emerged as the most prosperous kingdom in the history of Ancient India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gandhari language</span> Ancient Indo-Aryan language of Gāndhāra

Gāndhārī was an Indo-Aryan Prakrit language found mainly in texts dated between the 3rd century BCE and 4th century CE in the region of Gandhāra, located in the northwestern Indian subcontinent. The language was heavily used by the former Buddhist cultures of Central Asia and has been found as far away as eastern China, in inscriptions at Luoyang and Anyang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dardic languages</span> Subgroup of Indo-Aryan languages

The Dardic languages, or Hindu-Kush Indo-Aryan languages, are a group of several Indo-Aryan languages spoken in northern Pakistan, northwestern India and parts of northeastern Afghanistan. This region has sometimes been referred to as Dardistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magahi language</span> Indo-Aryan language spoken in India

Magahi, also known as Magadhi, is a Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal states of eastern India, and in the Terai of Nepal. Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magahi, from which the latter's name derives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamarupi Prakrit</span> Middle Indo-Aryan language used in ancient Kamarupa, Indian subcontinent

Kamarupi Prakrit is the postulated Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) Prakrit language used in ancient Kamarupa. This language has been derived from Gauda-Kamarupi Prakrit and the historical ancestor of the Kamatapuri lects and the modern Assamese language; and can be dated prior to 1250 CE, when the proto-Kamta language, the parent of the Kamatapuri lects, began to develop. Though not substantially proven, the existence of the language that predated the Kamatapuri lects and modern Assamese is widely believed to be descended from it.

Dramatic Prakrits were those standard forms of Prakrit dialects that were used in dramas and other literature in medieval India. They may have once been spoken languages or were based on spoken languages, but continued to be used as literary languages long after they ceased to be spoken. Dramatic Prakrits are important for the study of the development of Indo-Aryan languages, because their usage in plays and literature is always accompanied by a translation in Sanskrit.

Shauraseni Prakrit was a Middle Indo-Aryan language and a Dramatic Prakrit. Shauraseni was the chief language used in drama in medieval northern India. Most of the material in this language originates from the 3rd to 10th centuries, and represented a regional language variety with minor modifications to the same linguistic substratum as other Dramatic Prakrit varieties. It may be based on the spoken vernacular around the 2nd century BC in the ancient state of Surasena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apabhraṃśa</span> Class of Indian languages

Apabhraṃśa is a term used by vaiyākaraṇāḥ since Patañjali to refer to languages spoken in North India before the rise of the modern languages. In Indology, it is used as an umbrella term for the dialects forming the transition between the late Middle and the early Modern Indo-Aryan languages, spanning the period between the 6th and 13th centuries CE. However, these dialects are conventionally included in the Middle Indo-Aryan period. Apabhraṃśa in Sanskrit literally means "corrupt" or "non-grammatical language", that which deviates from the norm of Sanskrit grammar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linguistic history of India</span>

Since the Iron Age in India, the native languages of the Indian subcontinent are divided into various language families, of which the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian are the most widely spoken. There are also many languages belonging to unrelated language families such as Munda and Tibeto-Burman, spoken by smaller groups.

Magadhi Prakrit (Māgadhī) is of one of the three Dramatic Prakrits, the written languages of Ancient India following the decline of Pali. It was a vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan language, replacing earlier Vedic Sanskrit.

Proto-Indo-Aryan is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Aryan languages. It is intended to reconstruct the language of the Proto-Indo-Aryans, who had migrated into the Indian subcontinent. Being descended from Proto-Indo-Iranian, it has the characteristics of a satem language.

Ardhamagadhi Prakrit was a Middle Indo-Aryan language and a Dramatic Prakrit thought to have been spoken in modern-day Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and used in some early Buddhist and Jain dramas. It was likely a Central Indo-Aryan language, related to Pali and the later Shauraseni Prakrit. The Eastern Hindi languages evolved from Ardhamagadhi Prakrit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashokan Prakrit</span> Ancient Indo-Aryan dialect continuum

Ashokan Prakrit, also known as Asokan Prakrit or Aśokan Prakrit, is the Middle Indo-Aryan dialect continuum used in the Edicts of Ashoka, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire who reigned 268 BCE to 232 BCE. The Edicts are inscriptions on monumental pillars and rocks throughout the Indian subcontinent that cover Ashoka's conversion to Buddhism and espouse Buddhist principles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gandhāra (kingdom)</span> Ancient kingdom in the north-western South Asia

Gandhāra was an ancient Indo-Aryan kingdom of northwestern Indian subcontinent whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The inhabitants of Gandhāra were called the Gāndhārīs.

The inherited, native lexicon of the Hindustani language exhibits a large number of extensive sound changes from its Middle Indo-Aryan and Old Indo-Aryan. Many sound changes are shared in common with other Indo-Aryan languages such as Marathi, Punjabi, and Bengali.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Shapiro, Michael C. (2001), "Hindi", in: Facts About the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages, Past and Present, eds. Jane Garry and Carl Rubino: New England Publishing Associates.
  2. ↑ Bubenik, Vit (2007). "Chapter Six: Prākrits and Apabhraṃśa". In Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George. The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 209. ISBN   978-1-135-79711-9.
  3. 1 2 Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (2007-07-26). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 163. ISBN   978-1-135-79711-9.
  4. ↑ "...the MIA languages are not younger than ('classical') Sanskrit. And a number of their morphophonological and lexical features betray the fact that they are not direct descendants of Rigvedic Sanskrit, the main basis of 'Classical' Sanskrit; rather they descend from dialects which, despite many similarities, were different from Rigvedic and in some regards even more archaic." ( Oberlies 2007 :163)
  5. ↑ "The most archaic Old Indo-Aryan is found in Hindu sacred texts called the Vedas, which date to approximately 1500 BCE". Encyclopædia Britannica - Indo-Aryan languages. General characteristics.
  6. ↑ "If in "Sanskrit" we include the Vedic language and all dialects of the Old Indian period, then it is true to say that all the Prakrits are derived from Sanskrit. If on the other hand " Sanskrit " is used more strictly of the Panini-Patanjali language or "Classical Sanskrit," then it is untrue to say that any Prakrit is derived from Sanskrit, except that S'auraseni, the Midland Prakrit, is derived from the Old Indian dialect". Introduction to Prakrit, by Alfred C Woolner. Baptist Mission Press 1917
  7. ↑ Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (2007-07-26). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 163-220.
  8. ↑ South Asian folklore: an encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, By Peter J. Claus, Sarah Diamond, Margaret Ann Mills, Routledge, 2003, p. 203


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