Prakrit

Prakrit (Sanskrit, प्राकृत, n, prakrta ) (also known as Central Indian languages ​​) is the name for those Indo-Aryan languages ​​that follow in the linguistic history development on the Altindische. They were talking about AD during the period from the 6th century BC to the 11th century.

Definition

The term Prakrit (of course) wins as opposed to the term Sanskrit meaning: Sanskrit (cultured, maintained) was codified by grammarians complicated language of the upper classes, literary language, and especially the language of the Brahmanical tradition. On the other hand, is at Prakrits to the spoken language of the general population coming close dialects that are occupied in written documents of different kinds.

Importance and certificates

Just to stand out from the mostly written in Sanskrit works of Brahmanism, the Prakrits of the religious communities newly created (especially Jainism and Buddhism) were probably chosen as the means of their own tradition. The new religions also appealed to the masses, so that in contrast to Sanskrit non-exclusive Prakrits were the ideal communication and mission means. They were also described by grammarians. In dramas various Prakrit dialects were spoken by different people to express social differences. Of course, the Sanskrit members of the top box was reserved.

Relation to the Sanskrit

Was often, and it is claimed that the Prakrits evolved from Sanskrit. The Sanskrit is only one of many Indo-Aryan dialects, which have evolved from the Proto - Indo-Aryan. Although the Sanskrit has influenced the Central Indian dialects, but these have been developed independently from the Proto - Indo-Aryan.

The various languages

• Pali, the language of the Tripitaka. It has a special status because it is widely considered separately in the research of the following so-called literary Prakrits. Although the tradition of the historical Buddha in Pali was made, he said, even likely Ardhamagadhi.

• The literary Prakrits

We distinguish six dialects, which are documented in the literature. The names come from the Indian grammars, their descriptions in the case, only sparse traditions are also based many of our knowledge, for example in the Magadhi.

Prakrits the Ashoka inscriptions

An older stage of development of various Prakrits is also in the Ashoka inscriptions represented from the 3rd century BC. This oldest written records of India were set up in various regions of the kingdom of Ashoka and have largely the same content. They have different regional variants of Ashoka's official language, which give us information about the properties, especially the phonetic, who was then spoken in the respective areas dialects.

Apabhramsa

Apabhramsa is the umbrella term for the recent Middle Indic languages ​​, the AD between the 5th and 11th century. were spoken. With decreasing age the Prakrit languages ​​are always loud and form poorer and remove so increasingly from the common origin. The modern Indo-Aryan languages ​​(eg Hindustani (Hindi ), Bengali and Punjabi ) are derived via the intermediate stage of Apabhramsa of the Prakrits.

Linguistic characteristics

Prakrits compare well with the Sanskrit and describe the basis of the differences from him. ( Would correspond, for example, the description of the Italian on the basis of differences from the Latin. )

Phonology

The totality of the Prakrits has in common a large part of the deviations from Sanskrit. It is noticeable especially the extensive tendency to assimilation of consonant clusters, further the elimination of the syllabic r and l and the diphthongs ai and au, and the coincidence of the three sibilants ( hissing sounds ) into a.

Then there are the reduction of all the vowels before double consonants or Anusvara ("More Law") and the Auslautgesetz, after vowels in final position only or Anusvara can stand.

Grammar

The complicated grammar of Sanskrit is found in the radically simplified Prakrits again. The number of categories is greatly reduced, and also that obtained in the Sanskrit form of wealth of the Indo-Aryan is largely given way generalized suffix rows.

There are several reasons, most of all the loud statutory changes: Due to the simplicity of the sound system here an example would be in the Prakrits often result in ambiguous forms: it could abl.sg. a prakritisches Putta from appearing in the Sanskrit form putrāt or nom.pl. have originated putrāḥ. This ambiguity is countered by creating new ending rows by looking for the sound change further unequivocal endings of the various ( vocalic, consonantal and pronominal ) strains were generalized. This leaves Putta nom.pl.; the abl.sg on - ā is contaminated with the originally - tas denominated Adverbialsuffix (see adverb, suffix), which develops in the Prakrits about -to -do and to -o: The result is the ending- ado or -ao, so that the abl.sg. Finally puttādo or puttāo is. This new suffix -ao is generalized for all vocalic stems and also penetrates into the declension of pronouns.

The rule that word-final consonant can not be in the Prakrits, led to the disappearance of consonantal stems that are still recognizable as such only before vocalic endings. For example, Sanskrit inst.sg ( bhartṛ the tribe ) appears bhārtrā in Maharashtri inst.sg. (of nom.sg. Bhattā ) as bhattuṇā, but acc.sg. bhattāraṃ remains the r.

From consonantal stems were vowel, either by addition of a vowel or omission of final consonants. Preference is clearly the tribe on -a, have moved in, for example, the many words of the old s strains and most of the words of the old -n- strains ( with the omission of n ).

The dual exists in the Prakrits not, its function is shared by the plural. The dative is extremely rare, and its function is taken over by the genitive.