Indo-Aryan Languages

The Indo-Aryan (`Arya') family of languages is one of the major language families of the world. These languages are direct descendants of Sanskrit. They all utilize the Devanagari script.


The basic section ends here. The advanced section. with references is below.


Table of Contents

1. Indo-Aryan Languages

Languages of the Group

The various Indo-Aryan languages are classed into 3 chronological categories:

Of these, the languages in the first two categories are extinct ( dead ), while Sanskrit has been preserved as the sacred language of the Vedas and other sciptures sacred to the Aryan Vishnuite religion.

The Prakrits are in turn divided into geographical categories :

A further category, the Uttari Prakrits, is extinct.

These in turn have earlier and later stages; thus for instance, Old Oriya is known as Odri, Old Marathi as Maharashtri, Old Gujarati as Saurashtri etc. These Old Prakrits are still intelligible to a modern Aryan speaker in the smae manner as Old Anglo-Saxon is still intelligible to a modern Englishman.

Linguistic Characterisitics of the Indo-Aryan Languages

Grammar - The grammar of these languages closely follows Sanskrit. Most possess 8 grammatical cases like Sanskrit.

Writing Systems - THe writing system is Devanagari, the script for Sanskrit.

Vocabulary - The overwhelming majority of words are obtained from Sanskrit. The fraction in general exceeds 80 %, often reaching 90 %.

History and Developement

The Bibhasa stage is elucidated here:
The Brahmana texts mention that by 700 BC the following languages had evolved from Aryan:
1. Udicya or Northern in NW Pujab
2. Madhyadesiya eastern punjab and West UP
3. Pracya or Eastern Oudh eastern UP Bihar and probably a fourth
4. Daksinatyi or Southern: Southern Rajputana and Malwa towards Deccan.
These developed into Prakrits by the first millenium AD. Prakrits and Apabrahmsas include Avanti (Malwa), Takki (NPunjab) Kekaya (W Punjab), Vracada (Sind), Gaudi (N.Bengal), Audri (Orissa) etc. [ CHI Vol I p.57 ]

The term Romance Latin is derived from the medieaval term `Latin Romaniscus' which was used to denote a vernacular type of Latin speech and literature in the vernacular [EB 22 'Langs of the World' 640 ] . It is from these that the independant languages of Southern Europe are derived. A comparison of the family tree of the Sanskritic languages with the Romance languages is :

Thus the Bibhasa play the same role as the Romance Latin dialects in Europe. Just as very little literature was produced in Romance Latin, so little was produced in the Bibhasas. Both are merely intermediate steps in the process of mother language to national language.

Aryavartan or Central Indo-Aryan languages

Languages of the family

These languages of this category are considered the `purest' descendants of Sanskrit, being spoken in Aryavarta, the `pure land of the Aryans', also known as Aryadesha or Madhyadesha. Generally included as separate languages in this family are Braj Bhasa, Kannauji, Ayodhyi, Khari Boli, Bundeli, Bagheli, Bhojpuri.

Historical Development

The languages of this family are descended from Sanskrit via the intermediate Madhyi ( or Madhyadeshi ) Bibhasa. Around approximately 700 BC this bibhasa began to break into various Prakrits: Braj Bhasa and Koshali. Koshali rapidly broke up into Uttar Koshali, soon known as Ayodhyi, and Dakshin Koshali. Subsequently, Kannauji branched off from Ayodhyi around 300 A.D., as did Bhojpuri and Bagheli somewhat later. Meanwhile, Khari Boli and Bundeli branched off from Braj Bhasa. Khari Boli consists some loanwords from Islamicate languages ( Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Hindustani ), while Bundeli borrowed from Adivasi Dravidian languages. Braj Bhasa, however, remained pure of any such outside influence. Hsuan Tsang referred to the Kingdom of Mathura as extending from the Ganges on the east to the Himalayas on the north. Thus the kingdom of Braj at this time included the region of Haryana, and it is likely that this indicates Khari Boli had not yet evolved, and that the prime cause for the evolution of Khari Boli from Braj is the impact of Islam. Apabrahmsha - One of the errors made by many eminent schloars, including the compilers of the Encyclopedia Britannica [ EB ], is to include Apabrahmsha as a separate family of languages. This is incorrect. Apabrahmsha is merely a Prakrit known as Abhiri. It did not develop in the 12th century, as they state, but existed much earlier [ Apabr ].


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Linguistic Characteristics

Vocabulary. These languages are generally considered the purest descendants of Sanskrit, ie. their vocabulary contains the highest proportion of Sanskrit vocabulary of all Aryan languages; whilst the Adivasi ( Aboriginal ) influence on these languages is least. Hence most of these languages contain 70 - 80 % Sanskrit vocabulary [ Vira 24 ]. Only Khari Boli contains 20 % words of Islamicate origin [ Alld Chmbrs ].
Grammar. Grammatically the languages of Aryadesha are based on Sanskrit to a great extent. They all possess 8 cases, like Sanskrit.
Writing Systems. The writing system for all these languages is the Aryan Devanagari script. No other script is utilized for any these languages.

Southern Indo-Aryan Languages

Languages of the family

Marathi and Vidarbhi are the languages directly derived from the Deccani Vibhasa with minimal external influences. Old Gujarati was known as Sauraseni, and was later displaced by Gujjari ( Khazari or Middle Gujarati ). Later this language was Sanskritized to become Gujarati ( Modern Gujarati ).

Andhri is included in this family, and not the Dravidian family for the following reasons :

  1. Andhri contains a much higher percentage of Sanskrit loans than the other Dravidian languages.
  2. Andhras follow the Aryan Vaishnavite religion ( cf. the Tirupati temple ), in contrast to the Dravidians, who are Shaivite.
  3. Anthropological surveys indicate that the Andhras are preponderantly mulatto ( mixed white Aryan and black Dravidian ). It thus would be natural to consider Andhri to be a creole which was gradually Sanskritized.

Linguistic Characteristics

Writing Systems - The purest Sanskrit derivative of this family, Marathi, utilizes the Devanagari script. Gujarati uses a cursive derivative, while Andhri uses a Brahmi-based script with heavy Dravidian influence.

Vocabulary - Marathi has the highest proportion of Sanskrit loanwords of both tatsam and tatbhava derivation, exceeding 90 % in the case of Shuudh Marathi. Vidarbhi also contains loans to the tune of 90 % of hte language. These were the two regions most easily accessible to Aryan imigration form the north. Gujarati contains a lower proportion of Sanskrit loans. Literary Andhri contains more than 70 % Sanskrit lonas, but here the dichotomy between the cultured language ( spoken by the high-caste Aryans ) and the colloquial tongue ( spoken by the Dravidians ) is more apparent then in the other languages.

Historical Development

These tongues are descended from the Deccan or Dakshinatyi Bibhasa, which is in turn derived from Sanskrit. Initially a non-Aryan land, the Deccan experienced heavy Aryan immigration even before 500 BC. Subsequent to Islamic invasions in the north, the Deccan became the

Eastern Indo-Aryan Languages

Historical Survey

The Eastern Indo-Aryan, or Purbi languages, are descended from Sanskrit via the intermediate Purbi or Pracyi Bibhasa. Each of these languages has Older and Later stages. Old Bengali = Vangi or Gaudi Old Oriya = Odri

Linguistic Characteristics

Vocabulary. The vocabulary of the Purbi or Eastern Indo-Aryan Languages is, as with all languages of the Indo-Aryan family, heavily based on Sanskrit. However, they are less Senskrit-nased than the Midland Indo-Aryan languages, containing a larger fraction of Mon-Khmer words. Vocabulary from Islamicate languages ( Arabic, Perisna, Turkish and Hindustani ) represent only a small part of the Purbi language, while Kolarian ( Indo-Austric ) or Dravidian words are more common in Oriya, while Mon-Khmer words are more abundant in Assamese. Thus, Bengali is approximatley 75 % Sanskrit, with 2 % words of an Islamic derivation [ Chatterji p.256 ]. 70 % of Oriya vocabulary is of Sanskrit origin, the remaining 30 % comprising Kolarian ( or Indo-Austric ) and Dravidian loanwords [ Oriya Lit p.2 ], with words from Islamicate languages ( Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Hindustani ) comprising only 2 % [ CHC Orissa II : 1, p.15 ].

Bengali

Bengali is in essence a form of the Prakrit Vangi or Gaudi. The Indo-Mongoloid element (Naga) is predominant in langauge as well as religion (Saktism) and physical type and most of the substratum of colloquial Bengali is of Mon-Khmer origin. However, the polished language (Sadhu Basha) is as heavily Sanskritised as any other Aryan language. Only 2% of Bengali vocabulary is Persian/Arabic/Hindustani.

Oriya

Oriya is essentially a modified form of the Odri Prakrit. This Prakrit is in turn derived from Sanskrit via the transitional Bibhasas. Modern Oriya vocabulary is 70% Sanskrit, 2% Hindustani/Persian/Arabic with the remaining 28% of mainly Australoid ("Adivasi") origin [oriya]. The history of Oriya consists of the following stages:

Assamese

Kamrup was the region located along the Brahmaputra River valley and was a powerful kingdom. Its language, Kamrupi was derived from Prakrit by way of Purvi (or Eastern) Bibhasa. After the Ahoms took over the country, the language changed due to ever-increasing Mon-Khmer influence and became known as Assamese. Indeed, `Assam' is known as `Axom' in Assamese, and Assamese is essentially Ahomese. The colloquial dialects bear a very large substratum of Ahom words. Standard Assamese contains more Sanskrit than the local dialects. However, the ancient Kamrupi survives as a dialect of Assamese. The Kamrupi dialect of Assamese is quite similar to North Bengali. This is due to this regoin having been part of the ancient Kamrup empire. Phonology Grammar

Apabrahmnsa

Refernces

Keywords

Rajastan languages: Bagri,Bhoyari,Gade Lohar,Gujari,Harauti,lamani,Malvi / Malwi /Malawi/Malavi Nimadi, Sondwari, Marwari/Maru/Marui ( Ajmeri Dhatki,Northern,Southern ) Mewati Western Hindi: Bundeli, Hindustani, Hindi,Urdu, Braj Bhasa/ Braj Bhasha, /Braj Bhakha/Bhakhta/Bhakhtha, Chamari, Gowli, Haryanvi/Haryani,Fijian, Kanauji,Sansi (Pak) East Central: Awadhi/Avadhi, Bagheli, Baiga, Binjhwari, Chhattisgarhi/ Chattisgarhi/Chatisgarhi, Dhanwar, Ojhi Bhili, Dom/Domari, Gujarati: Koli, Saurashtra, Vasavi, Gujrati Khandeshi/Khandesi Punjabi: Majhi Eastern : Bengali,Chakma,Hajong,Halbi,Kawari,Kayori,Kharia Thar, Kishanganjia,Koch,Mal Paharia,Mirgan, Nahari, Rajbansi, Sylheti, Tangchangya Bihari: Anga,Bhojpuri,Gawari,Magahi,Maithili/Mithili,Majhi,Musasa, Sadri,Tamaria Oriya: Bagata, Bhatri, Bhuiya/Bhunjia, Bodo Parji, Jagannathi, Jharia,Kupia,Mali, Adivasi Oriya/Odishi/Odissi Northern Zone - Western Pahari: Bhadrawahi, Bhattiyali, Bilaspuri, Chambeali, Churahi,Dogri-Kangri,Gaddi,Jaunsari,Mandeali,Kullu Pahari,Mahasu Pahari Potwari Pahari, Pangi - Eastern pahari: Nepali - Garhwali:Garhwali,Tehri - Kumaoni - Unclassified: Palpa Southern Zone: - Konkani: Katkari,Thakuri - Unclassified: Varhadi-Nagpuri, Gowlan, Deccan. Bhalay, Are Southern : Marathi Kanjari Pali Vaghri Dhanwari Dravidian: Telugu/Telugu/Andhra/Gentoo/Tailangi/Telangire/Telgi/Tengu/Terangi/ Tolangan Dialects: Telangana,Telugu,Rayalaseema,Konda-Reddy etc. Malayalam Dialects: Malabar, Moplah,South Kerala, n,c Kerala, namboodiri Mayar Kannada Dialects: Jeinu Kuruba, Aine Kuruba, Bijapur, Badaga Tamil/Tamalsan/Tambul/Tamal/Tambu/Damulian/Tamili Dialects: Adi Dravida, Aiyar, Aiyangar, Arava, Burgandi, Kasuva, Kongar, Korava, Korchi, Madrasi, Parikala, Pattapu Bhasha, Tigalu, Harijan, Mandyam Brahmin ---- Refs. ( no need of for appencdix ) The history of the Indo-Aryan languages can be summarized as follows:
  1. Sanskritic Stage: During this period the Aryan invaders spoke Sanskrit.
  2. Bibhasa Stage: With the passage of time and the dispersal of the Aryans over large parts of the continent that lacked means of mutual communication, local dialects of Sanskrit developed. These local dialects are referred to as Bibhasas. Influence of the pre-Aryan languages ( Dravidian, Mon-Khmer, Austric ) also played a role in the development of these tongues.
  3. Prakrit Stage: With the gradual emergence of Aryan nations, the Bibhasas further developed into national languages, the Prakrits. A Prakrit was defined as any regional language that was derived from Sanskrit via the intermediate Bibhasas. An analogous development took place in Europe later, where the Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian etc.) are derived from Latin just as the Prakrits and modern Indo-Aryan languages are derived from Sanskrit:
           
        Sanskrit --> Bibhasas (4) --> Prakrits (7-10?) 
    
 
        Latin    --> Romance Latins --> Romance Languages (7-10)
    The modern Indo-Aryan languages are thus essentially Prakrits, and the earliest Prakrit can be considered as the Old Stage for any of the Indo-Aryan languages. A speaker of any Indo-Aryan language of today can understand much of the ancient Prakrits.
it consists of several diaelcts, e.g. Kohistani, Deccani, Rohilstani, Punjabi and Avadhi

Kannauji

The Prakrit Kosali split up into Kannauji, Bhojpuri etc.

Braj Bhasa

With the political decline of the ancient Saurasena Raj, its language, Sauraseni Prakrit, split further into a number of separate languages: Braj Bhasa (spoken in the Braj region), Khari Boli or Haryanvi (spoken in Haryana) etc.

Khari Boli

The official language of the Indian Republic

Marwari

The area of Marwar was known as Avanti in ancient days, and with the Scythian invasions, east Avanti was taken over by the Malava Saka tribe, while the western part remained Aryan and came to be know as Marudesa, and later as Marwar. Marwari is thus a desendant of the Avanti Prakrit.

Mewati

Malayalam (`mountainous country'= /mala/ - mountain + /aLam/ - place) The earliest written record of Malayalam is the /vazhatinaLL/ inscription ca. 830 AD. The earliest extant prose work in the langauge is the Bhashakautaliyam (12 C) on Chanakya's Arthashastra. In the 13 C /vattezhutu/ (round writing) descended from the original Indo-Ayran Brahmi script, gave rise to the malayalam writing system.Old Malayalam had more than 900 letters and was very rich in the large number of sounds that could be expressed in it. In the 1960s many of the special letters were dispensed with. and the new script has less than 90 letters. This was mainly done to include Malayalam in the keyboards of typewriters and computers. Malayalam vocaulary is 80% Snaskrit derivation, the Brahmin dialects bieng more Sanskritized than the Harijan.The Chrisitian dialects contain a higher proportion of Portuguese, Latin, Syriac and English loanwords.

Appendix

Prakrits

The tree of descent of all Indo-Aryan languages ( both live and extinct) is as follows (extinct languages shown in square brackets): 
                Bibhasas           Prakrit            Modern Prakrit

 Sanskrit --> Uttari Bibhasa  --> Gandhari         (extinct)
                              --> Kambhoji         (extinct)

              Madhyi Bibhasa  --> Sauraseni    --> Braj Bhasa 

                                               --> Mewati 

                              --> Avanti       --> Marwari
                                               --> [Malavi replaced East
                                                   Avanti]
                              
                              --> Panchali     --> Khari Boli or Haryani
                              --> Koshali      --> Bhojpuri 
                                               --> Kannauji 
                                               --> Ayodhyi (not Awadhi!)
                              --> Magadhi      --> Magahi 
                              

              Pracyi Bibhasa  --> Vangi/Gaudi  --> Bengali 

                              --> Odri         --> Oriya 

                              --> Kamrupi         (exinct, survives as a 
                                                   dialect of Ahomi/Assamese)

                              --> Angi         --> Angika
                              --> Mathili      --> Mithili

              Dakshini Bibhasa --> Maharashtri --> Marathi (Marathwada)

                               --> Vidarbhi    --> Varhadi (Vidarbha) 

                               --> Saurashtri       (extinct, replaced 
                                                    by Gujarati)
                               --> Andhrai      --> Andhri 

                               --> Karnadi      --> Kannada
This may be compared to the Latin tree: 


  Latin --> Iberian Romance --> Spanish 
                            --> Portuguese
                            --> Catalan
        --> Italic Romance --> Italian
        --> Balkan Romance  --> Romanian
                            --> Dalmatian
        --> Gallic Romance  --> French 
                            --> Occitan
                            --> Rhaetian

The classification of the modern Indo-Aryan languages is as follows: 

Madhyadesyi -- Braj Bhasa
            -- Kannauji
            -- Awadhi
            -- Eastern Koshali

Rajastani -- Marwari
          -- Mewari
          -- Malavi
          -- Harauti

Other -- Bundeli, Bagheli, Gondi, Dogri, etc.
Magadhi was the language of government and administration and perhaps most literature. Sanskrit was used in the larned writings of the priests. and was probably restricted to a narrow circle. Pali is very close to Old Magadhi. Pali was apparently spoken in Western india during the Magadhan Empire. [kavya I p.3]

Paisaci was used from 4C BC to the 1 C BC in Daskinapatha for secular literature . [Kavya I p.5]

`From ... Bharata and ... markandeya we come to know about the Udra language ... and the Udra tribe. According to Bharata [ from his Natyasastra 2 C BC ], Udra is one of 7 Bibhasas, a sort of dialect born out of the association of Sanskrit with an aboriginal language... Acording to Prakruta Sarbaswasa, a prakrit grammar of Markandeya, Udra is one of the 4 types of Prakrit ' [Oriya Lit p.1] ` Apabhramsa is `mentined as the "dialect of the Abhiras" and was called "Abhiri" and is mentioned in ca. 300 AD in Bharata's Natyasastra {Kavyamala No. 42} : " Apabhramsa is an uncultured dialect ( Vibhasa ) spoken by herdsmen" It had a lower status than Prakrit and abounded in u's. Kalidasa considered Prakrit too dignified a medium to be used for the raving of mad Puruvas and used Apabhramsa instead. ' [ Natyasastra Kavyamala No. 42 ] [ Apabhr. p.7 and p.4]

Composition

Oriya

Austric

The unity of the races of Chota Nagpur (Jharkhand) and the Oceanic and Australoid Negroids is demonstrated by several observations: black skin, broad nose, thick lips, abundant body hair (this feature ditinguishing these races from the less hairy Africans, along with flaxen hair in childhhod), long forearm, curly hair, use of the boomerang, the practice of male and female circumcision, the use of the boomerang etc. Linguistically a unity has also been realized:

` In 1906 Wilhelm Schmidt, a Germa priest and anthropologist, classed Austro-Asiatic with the Austronesian languages (formerly called Malayo-Polynesian ) to form a larger family called Austric.' [EB 22:719:1a]

Indeed it is thought that all Australoids and Oceanic Negroids (Melanesians) originated in Eastern India.

Dravidian

The Dravidians originally came from Africa and settled in India after the arrival of the Pygmoid Veddoids, eventually occupying all of India except the east which was peopled by the `Naga' Mongoloid Mon-Khmers. They mixed with the Mesopotamian Semites in NW India to give rise to the Indus Valley people. Thus the Indus Valley language was mixed African-Semitic. With the collapse of the Indus Valley civilization, these people moved south and eventually were driven to what is now Tamil Nadu under the pressure of the Indo-Aryan invaders. Thus Tamil is a direct descendant of the Semitic-African Indus Valley language. However, more the more primitive languages of the Dravidian family preserve their African characteristics (linguistic and physical) more purely than the Tamils, who have the highest amount of Semitic mixture.

` Tamil has the relatively lowest proportion of Indo-Aryan loanwords [of all Dravidian languages] (18-25 % according to the style), whereas in Malayalam and Telugu the % is sustantially higher ... most importatn sources are Sanskrit, pali, Prakrit ... modern Urdu, Portuguese and English.' [EB 22(`Languages ...'):718:2a]

` Inspite of the Adivasi and Dravidian influence etc., about 70% words of modern Oriya language are tatsama or tadbhava, directly taken from Sanskrit. The Aryanisation [of Orissa] began 8C AD.' [Oriya Lit p.2]
` In the course of time in the vocabulary of the Oriya language, more than 2000 Persian, Arabic,Turkish and Urdu words found their place [poets incl. Upendra Bhanja used Muslim words] [JKSamal Vol II Part 1 p.15]

Bengali
` Bengali has 2500 Perso-Arabic words out of a total of 120 000 in the 2nd edition of its biggest dictionary by the late Jnanendra Mohan Das ... [Suddhe Hindi or kahro Boli hence] at least 5000' [Chatterji 256] `One ony has to look at the big-size dictionaries of these languages [the modern languages of North and South India, ie. Kannada,Telugu, malayalam in South India] and calculate. One finds that out of 1 lac [100,000] vocabulary entries the Sanskrit element is between 70-80 thousand. Even in Tamil, which has treid to maintain relative purity of usage, and has less Sanskrit then the others, the number of Sanskrit words is above 40,000 ' [Vira p.24]