Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/289

Rh As to the Dravidian origin of the suffix কে to signify dative as well as accusative, my remarks in the 5th lecture (pp. 59-60) should be referred to. The Dravidian কু remains unchanged in Oriya, and in old Bengali, we get it both in the shape of কে and ক; in the provinciality of Rungpur the form 'ক' is still in use, as may be noticed in the forms মোক্ (আমাকে) and তাক্ (তাহাকে).

To convert possessive form to objective, adding এ to the possessive form, we need not import any foreign influence; for, an idea, relating to an object may be expressed in the objective case, without drowning the sense of relation; the line—'যাদেরে চাহিয়া তোমারে ভুলেছি, তারাত চাহেনা আমারে,' will sufficiently illustrate the case, if the thought underlying the sentence is properly analysed. This form of the objective case is met with more in poetry than in prose, in our modern language; in Eastern Bengal, however, this form obtains in common conversation language; cf., the Eastern Bengal sentences, মার-এ মারেনা = মাকে মারিতে নাই, and মোরে কও নাও ডুবাইবার? (How dare you suggest that the boat will be sunk by me?). We can easily trace this form of expression to a প্রাকৃত idiom: কসু-এ বি পেক্‌খদু (whomsoever you may meet) is equivalent to যারেই (যাকেই) দেখতে পাও; 'কসু' is in the possessive form being the অপভ্রংশ form of কস্য and এ is clearly object-indicating here.

Instrumental Case.—To signify the instrumental case we have in Bengali the suffixes এ, দিয়া, and হতে; their history may be briefly narrated here.

এ—The Pali Instrumental Plural suffix হি comes no doubt from ভিস্ or ভিঃ. It is well known that distinction between singular and plural was not much observed in the later Prākṛtas, and one well-formed suffix, no matter whether it was originally singular or plural-indicating, became the general case-denoting suffix. There are lots