Page:A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India Vol 1.djvu/76

54 The verb is simple, and formed as in other languages on the participial system. The indefinite present and the future may, however, be regarded as inflectional, as also the imperfect dekhilâm and the conditional dekhitâm. The pronouns are very little removed from Prakrit.

Oṛiya is the most neglected member of the group, and retains some very archaic forms. The repulsive and difficult character in which it is written, the rugged and mountainous nature of the greater part of Orissa, and its comparative isolation from the world at large, have combined to retard its development. In the noun the genitive and ablative are inflectional, and the locative is probably the same. Its verbal forms still require fuller analysis, but there is much that is inflectional apparent on the surface, though the universal participial system is also in use. In the indefinite present several of the forms retain their pure Prakrit dress, as the third person singular in aï and plural anti.

Both in Bengali and Oriya the singular of the pronoun and verb has been banished from polite society and relegated to the vulgar, and the original plural has been adopted as the polite singular, and been supplied with a new plural. Thus, in Oriya the singular mu, "I," is considered vulgar, and amhe, the old plural, is now used as a singular, and fitted with a new plural, amhemâne. In Bengali they have gone a step further, and made two new plurals,—one morâ, for the now vulgar singular mui, and another, âmarâ for the plural turned singular âmi.

§ 16. Having thus briefly generalized the structural characteristics of the seven languages, the character in which they are written next demands attention. The Hindi and Marathi use the ordinary Nâgarî in printed books, and their written character, as also that of Gujarati, does not vary from it more than is natural under the circumstances; the written character in all these languages being merely a rounder and more flowing