Linguistic Survey Of India Vol V Part I Indo Aryan Family Eastern Group

$ EASTEEN GBOtFP.

ends in e. Thus, the oblique form of ehorse' is throughout the Eastern Group ghofa,
but in Hindi it is ghore. Only in GujaratI and Rajasthanl is it glwdd. As "for weak
forma, both forms are the same throughout in the Western Group, but in the^Eastera
we have Bihari paJfrd, already mentioned, and mfafbd-k, for striking, Bengali mdribd-r,
of striking, Oriya martha-rct, of striking, and Assamese mdriba*r, of striking. In the
last example, the final vowel of the base is the same, but has been shortened. The
direct form of all these is either m&rib or mdrab. Similarly, the oblique form of the
Marathi bdp> a father, which is a weak a»base, is bfipd. Turning now to the formation
of cases, we see many points characteristic of the Eastern Group. The sign for the
Dative case in Bengali, Assamese, and Bihari is U. The only Western sign which at all
approaches this is the Hindi Jed. In the Eastern Group the typical letter of the Genitive
case is r% as in the Assamese ghordr, the Bengali ghordr, the Oriya ghordra, and the
Bihari, gJidfa-kSr. This is rare in the declension of substantives of the Western Group,
though we meet it in some of the pronouns* I have already drawn attention to the
synthetic manner in which some of the Eastern cases are formed.

Finally there is one important point that the case of the Agent, which in languages
of the Western Group is used before the Past Tenses of Transitive Verb, is altogether
wanting in the languages of the Eastern Group.

Turning now to pronouns, wo note first that the singular possessive pronoun in the

East has 5 for its medial vowel, but that in tho West It has
pronouns. „ OT ^ Thus, in Assamese, Bengali, and Bihari * my * is

mor, and in Oriya it is morat but in Hindi it is merdt and in Gujarat! it is mar5. Again
the relative and its connected pronouns end in 2 in the East, but usually in 5 iu the
West, Thus, Bihari /<?, Hindi yd, who, There are several other differences of the same
character*

It is in the conjugation of verbs that the languages of the Eastern Group show the

conjugation. most salient characteristics.

They have several forms of the Verb Substantive, some of which are common to all
Indian languages, some of which are rare in the Western Group, and one, the Bengali
lafe and Bihari bate> he is, which does not occur in it.

One peculiarity of the Eastern Group, which it shares with Mara^hi, is what is
known as the J~past. la all these languages, the characteristic letter of the past tense
is Z, which only appears, and then but rarely, in one language, Gujarat!, of the Western
Group. As this tense is of very frequent occurrence, it gives a distinctive colour to the
Eastern forms of speech, wiiich is at once recognised by the most inattentive hearer.
Thus, for *he struck/ we have Assamese manle* Bengali martia, Oyiya m&ril&> Bihari
mdr'lak, and Marathi m&rilj*9 but Hindi mdrd, Bajasthani and Gujarati mdryo, afcd
Panjabl marid*

Another very prominent characteristic of the Eastern Group i8 the Hutuue.
This it does not share with Maxathl Thus, for *thou wilt strike'1 we have
Assamese and Bengali mStSU^ Oriya m&rttw* Bihari mdr*b?; but Hindi mdreg& or
marihai, Mjasthani m&t*& or t»ai*ftj, Gujarat! mdr*6$> Panjabi mdrega.

These ate the principal ehmcteristios of the Eastern Verb. There are others less
important, but the above are sufficient to show how entirely different its conjugation is
from that of the west.

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