LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 23:8 August 2023
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Development of the Ergative in Garhwali

Saket Bahuguna

Abstract

This paper briefly describes the development of the ergative case in Indo-Aryan languages based on linguistic literature and ergative constructions in Garhwali as they occur synchronically. It describes the possible development of the ergative case in Garhwali from a diachronic perspective, considering the forms of the ergative marker used in two available copper inscriptions from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Diachronic facts point to the possibility that Garhwali had a single ergative marker /le/ at some point in its early history, which was used only in the perfective aspect, and after that period, two different ergative markers could have evolved through two different routes of evolution. While /-l/ in the Southern varieties seems to be inherited from the earlier common marker /le/, as was the case with Kumauni and Nepali, the /-n/ in the Western varieties seems to have developed in the same manner as other Indo-Aryan languages which lie geographically to the West of Garhwal due to common inheritance from the Middle Indo-Aryan languages.

Keywords: Ergative, Case, Garhwali, Indo-Aryan, Central Pahari

Introduction

In this paper, I attempt to study the development of the ergative case in Garhwali, primarily from a diachronic perspective. Garhwali is one of the two major languages of the Central Pahari sub-branch of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It was reported as ‘Mother Tongue’ by 24,82,089 people in the language report of the Census of India (2011), primarily residing in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is an Indo-Aryan (IA) language that evolved from the Old Indo-Aryan language Sanskrit through various stages of the Middle Indo-Aryan languages. Grierson (1916, 1927) classified Garhwali as a member of the ‘Inner Sub-Branch’ of the Indo-Aryan Languages. According to him, the Inner sub-branch is made up of three groups of languages: Eastern Pahari (Nepali), Central Pahari (Kumauni and Garhwali), and Western Pahari (includes Jaunsari, Sirmauri, Kullui, Mandiali, Chambiali, etc.). At the conclusion of his survey, he believed that all the Pahari (‘of the mountains’) languages were spoken by the Khasas, who inhabited the entire Himalayan region from Kashmir in the West to Nepal in the East. The principal dialect of Kumauni is called Khasparjiya even today and that of Nepal Khas Kura (Grierson 1927: 181). According to him, this is reflected in their linguistic structures and differences with the principal northern Indo-Aryan languages.

Grierson’s belief is based on the two-wave theory of the Aryan migration into India advocated by Hoernle (1880), which has been a source of wide dispute in literature. In line with his thoughts, many scholars (e.g., Chatterjee 1926; Sharma 1985) traced the origin of Pahari languages, including Garhwali to Khasa, Dardic, and Paisachi, while others (e.g., Chatak 1956; Varma 1949) have traced it to Shaurseni, to which the evolution of Hindi has also been traced to.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Saket Bahuguna
National Council of Educational Research and Training
New Delhi
saketbahugunadu@gmail.com
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