Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/298

276 an indeclinable particle; when we say করসে, মরসে, etc., an emphasis is put upon the verb by the addition of সে; pure 'সি' to signify second person, occurs very much in the Srikṛṣṇa Kirtan.

It is wrongly urged by some, that the মি ending of the verb in the 1st person indefinite, so common in the প্রাকৃতs, is not met with in Bengali; the mistake is due to the fact that some provincial future-indicating forms which take the suffix ম or মি, are not recognized as forms of present indefinite. That in the following instances, the present indefinite has been reduced to future (as is done in all languages), may be easily noticed: (1) করিম্ as the contracted form of করিমি (cf. Oriya করিবি as well as করিমি where ব and ম are interchangeable) is in use as 1st person future in the provincial dialect of Rangpur; (2) the forms করিম্, খাম্, যাম্, etc., as well as করমু, খামু, যামু, etc., are current in the speech of the common people of Mymensing; (3) the 'ম' ending of the verb in the 1st person, present tense, as is traceable in the Singhalese speech, must be owing to the influence which the প্রাকৃত of old Bengal exerted there.

The Present Progressive.—presents a very interesting form. In করিতেছে, we get the infinitive form of the principal verb linked with the present indefinite form আছে (derived from অৎথি = অস্ + তি), in such a manner that the latter appears, not as an auxiliary but as a suffix. The formation of corresponding Oriya form করুঅছি has been exactly in the above manner. It is noteworthy, that a contracted form of Bengali করিতেছে, is in use in Assamese; it is therefore doubtless, that Assamese করিছে had its origin in Bengal; করিছে from করিতেছে is in use in Bengal and its further contracted form কর্‌ছে is also in use in our common speech. As 'করিতে' (formed originally by the শতৃ suffix) is closes to the Prākṛta form করৎ, it is