Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/286

264 Bengali; on reference to the modern Behari, we can see that কেউ (and not merely কেহ) grew in মাগধী on the very soil of Magadha, yet it is only কেহি (corresponding to our কেহ) which we get in Oriya.

Case declension—The sign for nominative.—The 'অ' sound of the non-হসন্ত finals of all nouns in the Nominative Singular was reduced to 'ও' sound in Pāli, to represent very likely the সংবৃত pronunciation of অ, as I have suggested before. This sound of 'অ' which is almost ও continues with us, as an inherent Bengali speciality but we do not write 'ধম্মো' for 'ধম্ম' to paint the special shade of our 'অ' sound. This form of the word in the nominative case did not become extinct in the মাগধী speech, when the ending এ for ও came into general use, for we get in the Jaina Prākṛta, that though all nouns in the nominative case took generally the এ final, the forms with ও final were also in use; along with the forms মহাবীরে, জালিয়ে, মেহে, etc., we meet with the older form with ও ending as occurs for instance in such a sentence as 'যহা মেহো তহা জালি.' As it is in the provincial Bengali of Rungpur, so it is in Assamese that the nouns in the nominative case take 'এ' final invariably. ই for এ in such cases in Assamese as গাধই (ass) লতাই (creeper), etc., is rightly explained in the Assamese Grammar as the euphonic mutation of 'এ.' This 'এ' was once much in use both in Bengali and Oriya, but now the use is limited to some special cases only. Almost all the nouns in the nominative case have 'এ' or 'ই' final in the শ্রীকৃষ্ণ কীর্ত্তন of a time not earlier than the 14th century A.D. The modern use of it in Bengali in such cases as লোকে বলে (so the people say), মানুষে করে (so men generally do), ছাগলে খায় (the goats usually eat) is sufficiently expressive to denote the idea of plurality in an indefinite way. In Oriya, however, when a particular Pandit for example is alluded to it will be correct to say পণ্ডিতে